


The New Kid

by RoyalAsstronaut



Category: Six of Crows Series - Leigh Bardugo
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Brief conversation about moms dying, Can anyone tell me anything hotter than Nina and Inej doing badass tricks on a motorcycle together, F/M, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Gun use as target practice (no one getting shot at), Homophobic Language, Light mentions of Wylan's dyslexia, Like really slow but these boys are taking their time and whatever, M/M, Mostly Wesper for now but some cute Kanej and Mattina moments are inevitable, No please - I'll wait, Slow Burn, Some curse words nothing too bad, Some smut later but will update tags as it happens, Teenage pot use but it's legal in Ketterdam I've decided
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-14
Updated: 2020-12-29
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:54:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 34,846
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25889917
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoyalAsstronaut/pseuds/RoyalAsstronaut
Summary: Wylan van Eck starts junior year at a new school, joins a gang, and falls head over heels for someone.
Relationships: Jesper Fahey/Wylan Van Eck, Kaz Brekker/Inej Ghafa, Matthias Helvar/Nina Zenik
Comments: 63
Kudos: 140
Collections: SIX OF CROWS FICS





	1. Wylan - First Day of School

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wylan arrives at a new high school and immediately develops a crush.

Wylan van Eck pulled his car into one of the student spots at Ketterdam High, making a mental list of all the reasons he was expecting the first day of school to suck. It started with _I’m The New Kid_ , _Obviously_ and included _It's Hella Awkward to Find People to Sit With At Lunch_ and _Humans Weren’t Meant To Poop In Public Bathrooms._ He shut off the car and grabbed his backpack, adding _Everyone Is An Asshole_ , _Probably_ as he slammed his door and walked towards the school, only half-listening for the little _bloop-bloop_ that assured him the car was locked. 

He was early, as usual, so there was no reason to rush, but he walked briskly anyway so he wouldn’t seem as nervous as he actually was. There were a few other students straggling in, but he didn’t see anyone else walking in alone. 

_Three deep breaths_ , he told himself. _Deactivate the sympathetic nervous system. You got this._ Visualizing his anxiety in scientific terms helped, as it usually did. 

It had been a hell of a year. Wylan had not expected to spend the second half of his sophomore year fighting for legal emancipation from his shitty father, but life was weird like that. _Thank god for Kuwei,_ Wylan thought, for what was probably the thousandth time. He was really going to miss being in school with the quietly sarcastic friend who knew him better than anyone. If Kuwei were here now he’d be rolling his eyes dramatically while telling Wylan to stop being so dramatic.

This time, though, Wylan’s internal drama felt justified and his brain started ticking off reasons before he could help it. _New kid. First new school since 6th grade. What if no one else is out because everyone is homophobic. What if the teachers aren’t up to speed on how to handle my dyslexia. What if I don’t make any friends._

_What if._

_What if._

_What if._

Wylan had to physically shake his head to clear his thoughts. He took three more deep breaths as he walked up the stairs to the entrance and reached for the door. Before he could touch it, it burst open and two people barreled out, laughing and yelling at each other. Wylan took a startled step back.

“I told you! I freaking told you! Pay up, you dumb giraffe,” the girl half of the duo was saying. She was curvy and soft and had a mouth that looked like it was made solely to enjoy the pleasurable things in life.

Wylan tried not to laugh at her descriptor of the boy next to her, but it _was_ accurate. He was tall and lanky, wearing mustard-yellow cuffed Dickies and a cropped hoodie over a tshirt, the combination of which only made him look taller. He was covering his face and groaning melodramatically. 

“I hate it when you’re right!” giraffe-boy said. He pushed the girl’s shoulder playfully and was reaching into his pocket for his wallet when he looked up and noticed Wylan. His smile turned into a grin and a dimple flickered in one cheek. His eyes were a startling gray against his dark skin and Wylan’s stomach did wild flips as their eyes met. _Fuck. Fuckfuckfuckfuck._ The other boy was giving him a look like he wanted to eat him up and Wylan was seized with the sudden need to be devoured.

He tried to pull his face together and smile back, despite the fact that his brain had momentarily forgotten how to perform even a single basic motor function. He could feel his cheeks getting hot, and he managed what he hoped was a friendly half-smile before ducking around the door and into the cool, relative safety of the school.


	2. Jesper - First Day of School

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jesper and Nina hatch a plan to figure out who the blue-eyed cutie is.

Nina was elbowing him frantically in the side and stage-whispering something, but it took a moment for Jesper to refocus his attention on her. 

“What?” he asked, finally remembering that he owed her $5 and going again for his wallet.

“I _said_ , ‘holy crap that kid just eye-fucked the heck out of you!’ Who is he?? He must be new. Aaaaand thank you for that,” Nina’s eyes were sparkling with mischief as she plucked the $5 bill from Jesper’s fingers with a flourish. 

Jesper adjusted his shirt and ran his hands through his hair and touched one of the tiny gold hoops in his ears, actively resisting the urge to glance back at the door to see if he could see the new kid again. Nina was right: that was an eye-fucking if he ever saw one. Jesper replayed the moment as they walked back to his car--the wild blue of the other boy’s eyes on his and then that sudden, almost violent blush that was definitely one of the most adorable things he’d ever seen. A familiar knot of heat spread through his belly and Jesper grinned again; he _loved_ having a new crush. 

“WAIT,” Jesper stopped short as something occurred to him. “What if he’s new because he’s a _freshman?_ I cannot spend senior year feeling gross about crushing out on a freshman!”

“No way!” Nina scoffed.

Jesper wasn’t convinced. “Seriously though! He looked kinda...I don’t know...tender? Fresh? Like maybe this is his _first day of high school_?”

Nina made a dismissive gesture. “Pffft, absolutely not. Did you see the way he was dressed? Freshmen don’t dress like that, even gay ones. He’s at least a sophomore. _At least._ But my money is on him being a hella baby-faced junior.”

“Care to make that official?” Jesper raised an eyebrow at her.

Nina laughed. “You’re on! If I’m right you have to buy us all cookies from Milk Jar.” 

“The deal is the deal.”

They reached Jesper’s truck and he sighed as he opened the door. “I really thought the new principal would be a little more lenient on the ‘acceptable graphics’ policies,” he said, as he pulled off his hoodie. He looked sadly at the text on the front which read _Bi Forever, Bro_. “Guess we’re just going to have to keep Fighting The Man without the help of my dope slogans.”

“Hey, at least we won earrings and gender-neutral bathrooms! That's a great legacy. I say fuck it, let next year's students fight the slogan battle. It builds character,” Nina said. “Oooh speaking of earrings, did you take your septum ring out? Aren’t you afraid it will close up?”

“Nope! I tucked it.” Jesper tipped his head back so Nina could see the flash of gold in his nose. 

“Nice tuck, bro,” Nina smirked.

“Bro! Do you even tuck, bro?” Jesper postured. They both laughed as Jesper pulled on a new, blank but still cropped hoodie and shut the truck door. 

“Ok but seriously though. We need to do some recon on this please-don’t-let-him-be-a-freshman person. Is Kaz here yet?” Jesper checked his phone to see if any group chat notifications had popped up. 

“No, but Inej said they’re on their way. We can probably catch them at lunch.”

“Uuuuuugh,” Jesper groaned. “I want to know nowwwwwww.”

Nina rolled her eyes. “Well we _could_ just go inside, stalk him, and say hi in person."

“Mm-mm, too easy. I want it to be a surprise,” Jesper said. “I love running into crushes in the hallway and I have to savor it. This is my last year of this, you know.”

“Ha! Like you won’t have a single crush you can run into in the hallway when you go to college? _”_ Nina retorted. “You’re going to have so many hot crushes you won’t even be able to set foot in a hallway without tripping over someone.”

“But Ninaaaaa, this is _high school!_ We must treasure these adolescent moments!” Jesper was being dramatic to make a point, but he was also feeling apprehensive about the new kid. He didn’t want to get into it until he knew for sure he wasn’t wasting valuable crush energy on someone much too young for him.

Nina narrowed her eyes. “Ok fine. After you,” she added as she opened the school door for him. “Anyway, you might have class with him before lunch and then we don’t even have to involve Kaz.”

“Involve Kaz with what?” said a raspy voice behind them. Nina and Jesper whirled around to see two other members of their gang standing behind them. Kaz and Inej were both dressed in head-to-toe black and looked like they were on their way to either rob a bank or hex someone. Or both. Nina squealed and wrapped Inej in a bear hug.

“Babe! I missed you!” She planted a loud kiss on the top of Inej’s head. Kaz rolled his eyes and Jesper grinned. Nina and Inej had been hanging out literally 24 hours ago. 

“We were just talking about Jesper’s new crush!” Nina said, flicking Kaz on the shoulder. Nina was about the only person other than Inej who could get away with getting in Kaz's personal space and not risk being whacked with his notorious cane, but he still made a face.

“Nina!” Jesper gave her a look. “Could you keep your voice down just a little?”

“Oh please!” she scoffed. “You have a new crush every five seconds and no one is even listening.” 

“She has a point,” Kaz said drily. “So is this what I’m supposed to be involved in? I can’t possibly see why you’d waste my time with one of your seven thousand crushes.” 

Inej bumped him with her shoulder. “Hey, be nice. So--who is it?”

“That’s the problem! He's new.” Nina gestured dramatically. "But he is _not_ a freshman,” she added, as Kaz and Jesper both opened their mouths.

Inej nodded thoughtfully. “Hmmm ok. What does he look like?”

Jesper’s mouth quirked and his dimple flashed. “Wellll, he--I’m just assuming he’s a he. Hmm. Ok well, let’s ignore the fact that I’m totally gender stereotyping and just go with ‘he’ for now...he’s about yay high, reddish blond hair that’s kind of like, curly and floppy, and these _bananas_ blue eyes--”

“Bananas aren’t blue,” Kaz interjected, deadpan.

“Shut up. You know what I mean.”

“He also dresses like, _really_ well,” Nina said. “He was totally rocking that scarf.” 

Inej clapped her hands. “Yayy, a dapper mystery man! I’m totally down to do some recon.” 

Kaz snorted. “Well, I’m not. But if I hear anything in passing, I’ll let you know.”

“Thanks, Inej,” Jesper said pointedly. “You’re the best.”

The bell rang and everyone jumped. 

“Damn, I am reeeeeally not going to miss that next year,” Nina grumbled as they started walking. “See y’all at lunch!”


	3. Wylan - First Day of School

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wylan has calculus and meets Inej.

Wylan didn’t know whether to feel glad or anxious that his first class was calculus. On one hand, it was nice to start the day off with a class he knew he was going to love and do well in. On the other, it meant he had more time to get anxious about the reading-heavy classes happening later.

He hung back until he was sure he wasn’t going to be the first one inside the classroom and then quickly found a seat in the middle, all the way on the right. The room started getting loud as it filled up--this was a senior level class, and that fact was becoming very apparent. _Everyone’s known each other for so long,_ Wylan thought with a twinge. Despite the fact that for the past six months he’d been basically living on his own like an adult, he suddenly felt very young.

“You must be new,” said a voice next to him, seemingly out of nowhere. Wylan practically jumped out of his skin. _Where the fuck had she come from?_ He turned to the voice, which belonged to a girl who definitely had not been there when he sat down and who he definitely had not seen or heard come in, to an eerie degree.

“Sorry, I move quietly. It’s not just you.” she said, putting her hand out. "I’m Inej.”

“Wylan,” said Wylan. They had already broken the handshake before Wylan realized that he’d never in his life met another person his age who actually shook hands. Inej had made it seem like the most natural thing in the world and it was oddly comforting. She was petite, with long dark hair braided over to one side, and small gauged plugs in her ears. Something about her black outfit paired with her lithe way of moving made her look unsettlingly like a cat burglar, Wylan thought, but she had kind eyes.

“So are you a transfer or just an abnormally smart freshman?” Inej asked.

Wylan laughed. “Transfer. Wow, imagine having to take this class as a freshman.”

“Ooof. Hard pass,” Inej said, shaking her head. “High school is sucky enough without having to deal with seniors on your very first day. I’m a junior and it’s still pretty intense.”

“Same,” Wylan said, and Inej smiled. She looked like she was about to say something else, but was interrupted when the teacher started talking. As class went on, Wylan was relieved to see that Inej was also the type to sit quietly and just listen; he hated being looked at, even if it was only because the person next to him was being loud.

Class passed pretty much exactly the way he’d expected it to, and was over much too soon. When the bell rang, Inej turned back to him.

“It was nice meeting you, Wylan. I’m sure I’ll see you around.”

“Yeah I hope so,” Wylan said, sincerely. 

“Inej!” someone called her from the door and they both looked up. Wylan realized it was the girl from this morning and his heart skipped several beats as he half-waited for giraffe-boy to appear beside her, but he didn't. Wylan didn't know if he was wildly disappointed or relieved. The look the boy had given him was still eddying around his mind, and every time he thought about it his stomach hatched a new batch of butterflies. To say he was intrigued by the gray-eyed mystery boy was an understatement, but he also wasn't mentally prepared to navigate that dimple and that smirk again at not-even-10am. 

Inej was halfway across the room before Wylan even realized she had left. _How did she_ do _that?_ With a sigh, he gathered up his books and headed to his next class.


	4. Jesper - First Day of School

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jesper flirts, and the Dregs hatch a plan after finding out some important information regarding Wylan.

The morning dragged even more than usual for Jesper as he waited impatiently for lunchtime. Finally the bell rang and he bolted up, grabbing his books haphazardly and making a beeline for his locker. Kaz had done some of his finest hacking work to date this year and gamed the system so the whole gang had been “randomly assigned” lockers next to each other. Nina and Inej got there just after Jesper; Nina was talking animatedly and Inej looked excited.

“Jes! I have news,” she said. She barely looked at her lock as she dialed the combination and Jesper sighed inwardly. He fought with his lock on an almost daily basis despite having had the same combination since 8th grade. Inej smiled at him. “Literally my first class was with the new kid. We have calc together.”

Jesper punched his fist in the air. “YESS! Ok, what did you find out?”

“Wellllll…” Inej threw a conspiratorial look at Nina. “Looks like you owe us some cookies. He’s officially a junior.”

Jesper turned to Nina. “Awww I love it when you’re right!” 

“Yeah ya do,” she grinned. “And I’d like to request that at least six of those cookies be double chocolate mint, please.” 

“Ahh, so Jesper lost another bet?” A tall blond boy appeared behind Nina and put his arm around her shoulder. 

“Ayyyye Matthias! What’s up, man?” Jesper reached over and fist bumped him. “Unfortunately--but actually not _that_ unfortunately--yes, I lost a bet.”

Matthias looked quizzical but Nina took his hand and started walking. “We’ll tell you at lunch, come on.”

“Where’s Kaz?” Jesper asked.

“His leg was bothering him so he went straight to the cafeteria,” Inej answered. “But also you know how he is about staking out our table on the first day.”

This was true. Ever since 9th grade, Kaz had been adamant about laying claim to a table and not budging on it for anyone. Jesper figured it had something to do with Kaz having been a foster kid and needing to maintain some control over his personal life, but whatever it was, it worked in the gang’s favor. No one could argue that having a guaranteed table for the entire school year was a perk that took most of the stress out of lunchtime.

The group walked in a nebulous blob towards the cafeteria while Nina caught Matthias up on the morning’s events. They got in line and everyone bickered over which one of them their favorite lunch lady was going to give the most french fries to. 

“Guys, it’s literally _always_ Inej!” Nina said. “Why do we even bother to argue about--ow!” She yelled as Jesper hit her in the back with his tray. “Don’t hit me!”

“Sorry! I’m sorry. But he’s over there,” Jesper hissed, looking across the cafeteria to a table full of people. Everyone turned to look at the same time.

“Real subtle, guys,” Jesper muttered, but he had nothing to worry about. The cafeteria was already crowded and the new kid was sitting with a group and looked like he was listening hard to a conversation.

“Those are all band kids, yes?” Matthias asked.

“OoOOOoo cutie plays an _instrument!”_ Nina exclaimed. “That’s so nerdy and hot.”

“Yeah he’s also quiet and seems really smart,” Inej added. “And his name is Wylan, by the way. I made sure to introduce myself.” She smiled as their favorite lunch lady gave her an extra helping of fries. “Thanks, Kathleen!” 

“Wylan,” Jesper tried it out for sound. “That’s sexy.”

Nina popped one of Inej’s fries in her mouth. “Ok then, shall we do a walk-by? Just a quick one, no stopping.”

"Yes ma'am!" Jesper gave a quick salute and started walking.

The table where Wylan was sitting wasn’t actually along the most direct route to the table Kaz had claimed, which made their path an awkward one. Additionally, everyone immediately forgot that in order to seem natural they should probably continue talking, so instead they moved in an intense, dead silent cluster towards Wylan’s table.

As they got there, Jesper suddenly realized how massively eerie this must seem, and in an effort to rectify it said much too loudly, “HEY NINA, WHAT CLASSES DO YOU HAVE THIS AFTERNOON?” 

Inej erupted in a coughing fit and Nina outright guffawed. Wylan glanced up just in time to catch Jesper registering his mistake with a horrified expression, as his friends cackled like hyenas behind him. Luckily, Jesper was nothing if not quick on his feet. He made an impressive recovery and tipped his chin at Wylan. 

“Oh hey again,” he said, just loud enough to let Wylan know that the greeting was directed towards him and him alone. Wylan broke into an adorably sideways smile and flushed a brilliant pink from neck to forehead. Jesper high-fived himself in his head.

“Hey,” Wylan said. Despite sounding shy, he didn’t break eye contact and for the second time in less than five hours, Jesper found himself lost in the clear blue of the other boy’s eyes. His stomach flipped and he had just opened his mouth to say something else when Nina poked him in the back.

“Jesper, _move_! I’m hungry.” 

Jesper closed his mouth and put himself back together. “See you around,” he said lightly, and added a wink for good measure. He stayed long enough to see Wylan duck his head and grin, then he sauntered over to their table feeling like a million bucks. 

There was a flurry of activity as everyone sat down to attack their food.

“Jesper, the blush on that kid is _unfuckingreal!_ What a sweet, tender baby. I love him already,” Nina said around a mouthful of chicken fingers. 

Jesper grinned at her. “I know, right? Ugh, I’m literally dead.”

Nina elbowed Matthias in the ribs. “I remember when _you_ used to blush like that! Now you’re all desensitized and stuff.”

“Maybe you just haven’t been trying hard enough,” Matthias said seriously.

“Ooooo my baby’s got jokes!” Nina kissed him loudly on the cheek. Matthias grinned.

Jesper watched as Inej quietly slipped a chocolate pudding out of her hoodie pocket and put it on Kaz’s tray. A brief smile flickered over his face as he removed a chocolate pudding from his own pocket and set it on her tray. For a moment, their pinkies touched and they leaned into one another, a quiet center in the storm of conversation raging around them. Then it was over just as quickly and Kaz cleared his throat and focused his attention on Jesper.

“I learned something about your boy,” he said. Everyone stopped talking and turned to look at him. “Remember the van Eck court case that was all over the news back in February?”

Everyone looked at him blankly for a moment and then Inej’s eyes got wide. “No way! He’s _that_ kid?” 

Kaz nodded, still watching Jesper.

Inej looked upset. “I can’t believe I didn’t put that together when he introduced himself! Wylan isn’t exactly a common name.” 

“Well to be fair, we never actually knew what he looked like,” Nina said, which was true. As a minor, Wylan hadn’t consented to appear in any photographs related to the case, and for some reason his father hadn’t seemed eager to appear in public family photos with him prior to that, either. 

Jesper was trying to wrap his head around this new information. _I have a crush on Wylan van Eck_ _?? Wylan van Eck is gay??!_ This explained...so much. Jan van Eck was one of the wealthiest and most notorious businessmen in the state, and had made a name for himself by throwing loads of money at campaigns to get conservative politicians elected. The whole gang followed politics closely and hated van Eck (and others of his type) on principle, but they had developed almost an obsession with him over the winter when the court battle began.

Naturally they sided with his son, who had claimed “abusive, neglectful, and/or otherwise harmful actions” as the reason for his emancipation, and then quietly disappeared from the public eye. In a weird way, the gang felt a sort of kinship with him: the reason they were a gang had mostly to do with the fact that they had all grown up in homes with varying levels of unreliable, unpleasant, or (in Kaz's case) nonexistent parents. Although Jesper considered himself lucky that his one living parent was loving and supportive, Wylan’s struggle still hit close to home for all of them. In the wise and immortal words of Kaz, someone needed to take that Jan van Eck asshole _down_.

There was a short silence as everyone considered the implications of Kaz’s news. Then Nina shook herself.

“Ok, _obviously_ we have to adopt him. Right? Right?” she poked her fork towards everyone at the table. “Mom? Dad? What do you say?” 

Inej nodded solemnly. “I say yes. He probably feels so alone right now.”

“Well there’s nothing this group is better at than making people feel extremely never alone,” Matthias said. “I should know.”

Kaz half-smiled. “It’s our greatest strength and will also probably kill us all." He paused to consider. "But I agree with Nina.”

Nina clapped her hands and grinned. "Oooo yay! Jesper gets a cutieeeeee."

"Think I can make him blush so hard his face stays that way?" Jesper drawled, wiggling his eyebrows.

"No." Kaz's voice cut through their banter like a serrated blade. "That's not how it's going to work. If we’re going to do this, you need to keep it on lock. No getting involved with new members. Dregs first, you know the rules.”

Jesper’s face fell and Nina opened her mouth to protest. 

Kaz cut her off. “Rules are rules.”

Jesper made a face. “Come on, dude. That’s totally unfair.”

“No. What would be unfair is for us to bring this kid in only to have you flirt the pants off him and then break his heart. Sorry to be an asshole but you know how you are, Jes.”

“Ok but counterpoint: what about me and Matthias?” Nina said. “You didn’t tell _me_ about this rule when _he_ joined.”

Matthias had been sent from Fjerda to live with a host family when he was in 9th grade, and had promptly been absorbed by the gang after Kaz saw him being bullied for his accent and realized that Matthias was also, for all intents and purposes, parentless. After a rocky few months of culture shock, Matthias adjusted and it was smooth sailing until junior year, when suddenly he and Nina started fighting constantly. Once they realized what was actually happening, the bickering gave way to an endearing yet annoying game of sexy cat and mouse. Everyone had been relieved when they finally hooked up at junior prom. 

“I didn’t need to." Kaz's gravelly voice was impassive. "If you recall, you were friends for two years before anything happened. And because of that, I trust that if your relationship crashes and burns then you’ll both have the decency to pick up the pieces quietly and not drag the rest of us into your mess." The unspoken end of his sentence was _just like Inej and I would._

Jesper hated admitting it but he had the creeping feeling that as usual, Kaz was not only correct but also one step ahead of any of them and probably had an ulterior motive. There was a silence as everyone gave this some thought.

Finally Inej spoke up. “I think he’s right, Jes. If we’re going to adopt him it needs to be for actual reasons and we have to be united about it.”

Jesper bit his lip and sighed. Something about Wylan was pulling on him in a way that hadn’t happened in a long time, and he had been eager to give in to that pull. On the other hand, when he thought of Wylan as a newly emancipated kid, likely younger than all of them, not only starting his life over at a new school but also having to become an adult practically overnight…

The choice was easy. “Ok. You’re right,” he said. “He needs friends more than he needs my flighty ass chasing him around school all year.”

Matthias reached around Nina and clapped him on the shoulder in solidarity. “Good man, Jes.”

“I’m sorry, bb,” Nina said sincerely. She looked at Kaz. “I know you’re right but I still hate your methods.”

Kaz shrugged. “My methods are sound. Take it or leave it.” He caught Inej's frown and his tone softened. “Listen--we all know how this friendship works. We’re ride or die, and for someone like him at this school, that’s going to end up meaning a whole lot. Give it til the end of the school year, Jes. If he’s still on your mind, then you can make your move.”

This was about as much grace as he would get from Kaz on this one, and Jesper took it and was glad for it. But still. _A_ _whole year,_ he thought with despair. 

Nina read his face and gave him a sideways squeeze. “It’s going to go soooo fast, I promise! It will be June before you even know it.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Inej said. “I’m going to miss you guys so much. Well I guess on the bright side, I’ll still have Wylan. Assuming he isn’t an asshole. And also wants to join the gang...we shouldn't just assume he's going to.” 

“I feel like he kind of wasn’t given a choice,” Matthias admonished, although he also sounded slightly amused. “When will you all be sick of plotting about other peoples’ lives?”

“NEVER,” they chorused. Matthias shook his head.

“Ok ok ok!" Nina clapped her hands like a theater director. "Decisions have been made. The newest member of the Dregs must be acquired and I’m going to nominate Inej to do the honors. Honestly it shouldn’t be that hard since y’all already have class together.”

Inej nodded. “I’m on it.”

Kaz caught Jesper’s eye and tipped his chin ever so slightly. For Kaz, that passed as an apology and Jesper gave him a lopsided smile in return. _It's going to be ok_ , he thought. _It's going to be ok._

For the most part, they were all pretty much always ok. He just had to trust that Kaz’s methods were sound.


	5. Wylan - First Day of School

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wylan has an extremely eventful chemistry class.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: this chapter contains some homophobic language/slurs!

It took Wylan a solid hour to get over his interaction with giraffe-boy. 

Wait, he had an actual name now: Jesper. The boy with the most perfect lips he'd ever seen, and the longest, giraffiest legs. _Jesper_. Wylan rolled the name around in his head until it didn’t sound like a word anymore; he was dying to run into him again. Based on Jesper’s blatantly obvious tactics at lunch, Wylan thought maybe he wouldn’t have to try too hard on that front, but he still spent most of study hall daydreaming up elaborate meet-cutes between the two of them. 

Sometimes it was more like meet-cute-kiss. In one particularly detailed scenario, he and Jesper were studying together in the back of the library, minding their own business and away from everyone, when suddenly Jesper pushed him against the stacks (specifically the Classical Composer Biographies H-R) and started kissing him with those perfect lips. Wylan played this out until he felt his pants getting tight; he started guiltily, put a book in his lap and focused carefully on his calculus homework for the rest of the period.

Thankfully he was able to get to English class a little early to check in with the teacher and give him the heads up about his dyslexia. This was something he'd had to do for himself pretty much every year since 6th grade, after it became clear that his father was not going to advocate for him. His records had been transferred from his old school but, as expected, gotten lost in the shuffle. Luckily the teacher was understanding and had no problem with the voice recorder Wylan used in lieu of taking written notes. Wylan felt relieved. 

His last class of the day was AP chemistry and he was looking forward to it: bookending his day with his two favorite subjects seemed like a very good omen. In fact, he was pretty happy with his class schedule overall. Having band right before lunch had not only relaxed him but given him a group to sit with, which crossed one of the anxiety items off his mental list. Now he just had to skate through the last hour and he’d be done with what had turned out to be a fairly successful first day.

He was one of the first people into the classroom, and chose a lab table near the back; he liked watching everyone come in. As expected, the seat next to him stayed open until it looked like pretty much the whole class was there. But that was ok--not everyone was sitting with someone. Wylan figured they must all just be waiting for the teacher to announce lab partners.

The teacher was a tall, thin woman dressed like she was about to go camping, and Wylan liked her instantly. She shut the door and lifted her hands to signal that everyone should shut up. Wylan was just settling in to listen when the door opened and giraf-- _Jesper_ burst in, all elbows and half-apologetic smile. Wylan’s stomach immediately began performing an Olympic-level gymnastics routine inside him, but the tall boy slipped into a spot near the door without noticing him. 

“Sorry, Ms. Cochran,” he said. “I was unavoidably delayed.”

Ms. Cochran smiled and shook her head. “Jesper, the day you aren't late to the first day of class is the day the world will end. Don’t let it happen again. Now then!” she clapped her hands loudly and Wylan jumped. “Listen up for your lap partner assignments!”

She began reading out pairs of names and Wylan realized he was holding his breath. Weirdly enough, “Jesper is your lab partner” had not made it into one of his meet-cute scenarios. Wylan summoned all of his brain power just in case he could spontaneously learn how to communicate telepathically with Ms. Cochran. _Please put us together please put us together please pu--_

“Wylan and Dirk,” Ms. Cochran said, looking out at the class. “Wylan? It says here you’re new. Welcome! Can you raise your hand please?”

Wylan inwardly cringed and raised his hand. Everyone, including giraffe-Jesper, turned to look at him at once and he felt his face heat up.

“Great,” Ms. Cochran continued. “You can join Dirk right here.” She pointed to the open seat at the table to the right of Jesper and Wylan’s heart stuttered. _Ok, so we’re not partners but he’s so close, holy shit, he’s so close._ Maybe he was like, a half-telepath after all. He made his way down and settled in, purposefully avoiding Jesper’s eyes as he tried to get his blush under control. Ms. Cochran continued her list. 

“DeShaun and Jared. Nathalia and Carlos.”

Dirk was sizing Wylan up so he gave him as normal a smile as he could muster, considering his brain was entirely occupied by the fact that he might as well have been sitting in Jesper’s lap. Dirk gave him a noncommittal chin tilt and then ignored him. 

“Hey!” Jesper’s voice next to him was that same low, conspiratorial tone he’d used in the cafeteria. Wylan mentally told his blush to fuck off (it didn’t), and turned to the pile of arms and legs next to him. Jesper was grinning, but it wasn’t the dimpled wolf’s grin he’d had this morning. This was a genuine, friendly smile that Wylan was surprised to find actually put him at ease.

“Hey,” he said, smiling back. 

“I’m Jesper,” said Jesper, a bit unnecessarily, although he had no way of knowing that. “Wylan, right?”

“Yeah,” Wylan said, thoroughly confused. “How--?”

He was cut off by another of Ms. Cochran's claps. The clap was even louder being this close to her and to his extreme embarrassment, Wylan jumped again. Jesper started laughing sympathetically and his dimple flared. Wylan shook his head ruefully and turned his attention to the front of the room; he wasn’t about to get called out for not paying attention, even for an outrageously charming dimple.

“Last one--Jesper and Anika,” Ms. Cochran said. A skinny girl in overalls with a pile of hair on top of her head and a near-bald undercut joined Jesper and they bumped fists in a familiar way. Wylan didn't want to stereotype but if he had to go by appearances, he was willing to bet that Anika was also queer. 

Ms. Cochran wasted no time in getting everyone working on their first experiment and Wylan quickly found out that, while Dirk wasn’t lazy or bad at the actual work, he also seemed bent on making Wylan’s life a living hell. As soon as Ms. Cochran was distracted with a student at the back of the room, Dirk elbowed Wylan in the ribs, hard.

“Hey new kid, you a faggot?” he said quietly, almost conversationally. When Wylan didn’t answer he continued. “That’s what I’m going to assume since you seem real friendly with Jesper Faggy over there.”

Wylan was willing to bet his entire trust fund that this wasn’t actually Jesper’s last name. He pressed his lips together and focused on not pouring chemicals on Dirk’s hand by “accident.” He’d endured his share of homophobic nonsense last year when he’d come out, but he had always had Kuwei with him for support. _WWKD?_ Wylan thought, smiling to himself.

“Who you smiling at, fag?” Dirk asked. He was still quiet enough that Ms. Cochran couldn’t hear, but his voice had carried to the next table and both Jesper and Anika’s heads snapped up.

“The fuck did you just call him?” Jesper’s usually warm voice had taken on a deadly tone. Anika’s eyes were narrowed and she looked like she was ready to do some damage.

“It’s so cute how your boyfriend defends you,” Dirk said to Wylan. “I’m not surprised he’s with you already. Faggy fucks everything that walks.” 

Wylan’s face was on fire and his chest was tight. He wanted to defend Jesper but he didn’t know what to say, or if he could even get the words out. Luckily Anika was quick on her feet. Before Wylan could blink, she had ducked around Jesper and was standing next to Dirk with his hand in hers. She bent his pinky at what looked like an extremely painful angle.

“You leave him the fuck alone or I’ll break this, too,” she said softly, as Wylan watched with equal parts horror and admiration. Dirk’s face was red and he looked like he was in a lot of pain. He gave Anika a look of pure hatred, but there was genuine fear under it and Wylan was suddenly burning with questions about what other parts of Dirk Anika had broken. 

Anika made it back to her spot as Ms. Cochran turned back around and Wylan ventured a glance at Jesper, who met his eyes and winked. 

“You ok?” he mouthed.

Wylan nodded as a warm, happy bubble expanded in his chest. Dirk was an asshole, but he had two other seemingly pretty cool people on his side and that felt good. Thankfully, Anika's threat was effective and Dirk kept to himself for the rest of class. Wylan saw Jesper look over at him a few times but he didn’t want to give Dirk any more fuel, so he focused on the experiment to keep from looking back. He hoped he'd be able to talk after class, but when the final bell rang, Ms. Cochran appeared in front of Wylan and tapped her fingers on the table next to him.

“Wylan, please stay a moment to talk,” she said. Wylan looked at her in a panic and she laughed kindly. “You’re not in trouble! I just like to have a quick chat with all the new students.” 

Wylan nodded but his heart sank as he glanced over at Jesper already gathering up his things. Jesper caught Wylan’s eye and opened his mouth to say something, then registered Ms. Cochran standing over Wylan. 

His expression changed and he gave a little "oh well" shrug and waved. “See you tomorrow, Wylan.” 

Wylan waved and tried to smile but there were too many things going on in his brain and he couldn’t tell if his face looked right or not. Before he had figured it out, Jesper had disappeared out the door.

Ms. Cochran kept him for less than 15 minutes but it was just long enough that almost everyone had gone by the time Wylan left. Feeling a lot of different ways about everything, he got his stuff from his locker and trudged back to his car.

He could tell something was off before he even got close enough to see; years of living with a volatile father had honed his Spidey senses to a fine point. And he was right: written on the driver’s side window in thick, black sharpie were the words ASS FUCKER in messy block letters, accompanied by a wildly inaccurate line drawing of what he assumed was supposed to be a butthole next to a penis. _Why not draw the penis_ in _the butthole?_ Wylan thought, and giggled, which in turn kind of made him want to cry. He sighed. What a day.

The slurs and bullying didn’t bother him per se. It sucked, but he had been bracing for the worst anyway, and the thought of potentially forging a friendship with Jesper’s crew took most of the sting out of it. He was more annoyed with the fact that he was now going to have to do a bunch of extra work to get this Dirk kid off his back. 

Wylan was not a natural physical fighter either by nature or stature, but he had been working around that fact his whole life and he had his methods. Tonight, in addition to his regular homework, he was just going to have a little extra chemistry to do. He actually smiled a little to himself when he thought about it. Chemistry had been his refuge ever since he could remember, and it was deeply satisfying to be able to put his knowledge to good use as a tool for revenge. 

He mulled over his options as he drove the short distance to his apartment and by the time he arrived he'd settled on a plan.

It was still strange not driving to his house-- _no, the van Eck house_ , he corrected himself. It wasn’t his anymore. Just like his dad wasn’t his dad anymore, legally anyway. Wylan wasn’t sure if he was shaving years off his life from the stress of living on his own at age 16, or gaining years back due to the extreme joy of not having to live with his dad anymore. Maybe it just cancelled out.

His apartment was a cozy one-bedroom that took up the top floor of a renovated early-1900s house that came complete with gingerbread and a dramatic front porch. His downstairs neighbors kept to themselves and didn’t seem to mind or question the fact that an unsupervised teenager lived above them. He’d been there for almost six months but he still felt a deep sense of relief and satisfaction every time he walked through the door. This was _his_ apartment, decorated how he wanted, with everything in its proper place. 

Perhaps best of all, he had sole access to the building’s widow’s walk and had made it an almost daily ritual to take a beverage and sit up there to write music or do homework or just lie and think. Wylan left his things on the table, carefully brewed a single cup of decaf in the French press, then climbed the steep set of steps to the roof. 

As he settled down, the entire day came rushing back at him in an emotional wave and Wylan was overwhelmed. He needed to talk to someone sensible, who would also make sarcastic, deadpan jokes that were best in person but just as comforting over the phone.

Wylan put down his coffee, opened his contact favorites, and dialed Kuwei.


	6. Jesper and Nina - First Day of School

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jesper and Nina catch up over text.

_Missed u! Where u go?_

**Sorryyyy it's a farm day, had to bail**

**Whatcha doing?**

_Homework :( Inej is here. Come over!_

**Can’t :-/ I gotta be up at like 4am**

_TELL YOUR DAD TO FEED THE FUCKING COWS BY HIMSELF_

_Jk jk don’t say that I love your dad_

**Lolllll**

**Guess what?**

**I HAVE CHEMISTRY WITH THE NEW KID**

_Yeah no shit. I was there for the Eye-Fucking and the Eye-Fucking 2: The Fuckening, remember?_

_Also aren’t u supposed to be on ur best behavior? *side eye emoji*_

***8 eye roll emojis***

**I meant chemistry THE CLASS**

**Dick**

_Lol ohhhhhh_

_So how was it?_

_Was there an Eye Fucking 3: The Hills Have Eyes That Fuck? *crying laughing emoji* *eggplant emoji*_

**Har har**

**I mean...kind of? I tried to avoid it**

**Also he was paired with Dirk so that went about as well as you’d expect**

_Oh no_

**Yeah. Then Anika was Anika and did that finger thing**

_To Wylan???????!_

**Nina for fucks sake**

**To DIRK**

_Oh that makes way more sense_

_Well YAY for Anika and her giant ovaries_

_What was Dirk doing??_

**Ugh just like typical shit**

**Like did u know I’m a fag and will fuck anything that moves?? *eye roll emoji***

_Awww bb_

_:(_

_Dirk’s the worst, fuck that guy_

_NOT LITERALLY_

_(Cuz you don’t wanna prove his point LOLLLLLLLLLLL)_

***not-amused face emoji***

**Fuck Nina the new kid is soooo cute**

**Blushing is like his thing apparently**

**I want to make out with his stupid red face so hard**

**I guess I should start calling him Wylan since we'll be hanging out**

**And like I totally get Kaz’s rule but UUUGGGH**

_I know :-/_

_I feel like if u just give it a couple months_

_And things are normal_

_Maybe we can revisit?_

**Ha**

**When has Kaz EVER “revisited” a plan if it wasn't in his own best interest?**

_Ok fair_

_But until then u can get to know him_

_Cuz like what if he was an asshole and u wasted a bunch of time chasing/dating him before u_ _found out_

_That would be annoying_

_For all of us_

**Ok points have been made**

**Also I wanted to ask him to eat with us tomorrow but Ms. C made him stay to talk** **after so I couldn’t**

_Awww Ms. C_

_No worries Inej is still on it_

**BLESS**

_She says hi_

**Hiiiiiiiiiii :D**

_What’s ur farm life like this year? I wanna talk ROCKY SCHED_

**I’m on feed duty Monday Tuesday Sunday**

_Niiiiice ur dad let u off light this year?_

**Yeah we got a couple new buyers so he was able to hire someone for the other days**

**Thank glob**

**Otherwise the year would have been lowkey bullshit**

_Ur dad’s a gem_

_My offer to be ur new stepmom still stands_

**I hate u**

_Listen, just because I’m not ur real mom doesn’t mean u can be rude_

***Middle finger emoji***

_*Grinning devil’s face emoji*_

_ANWAYYYYYYY so Rocky_

_I have all these ideas for costumes this year and I really wanna level it up_

_I found this AMAZING vinyl dress for prologue Magenta. I look so hot in it omg_

_Actually wait let me just share the Pinterest board_

_But also let’s talk rehearsal scheduling tomorrow_

_I know we got this but since this is probs our last year I wanna make it gooood_

**Booooooo our last year don’t say it :(**

_I know! *Selection of crying emojis*_

**Wow I can’t believe if I want to wear lingerie after this I’m gonna have to do it a) on my own time and b) alone and not in front of a room full of sweaty maniacs**

_Babe u can always always wear lingerie in front of us_

_I’ll even do like actual exercise first so I can be extra sweaty_

**Wow thanks**

**Ok I have to go do actual work**

**Related: AP chem is hard**

_lol I'm sure *3 side-eye emojis* *3 eggplant emojis*_

_FUCK SORRY!!!!_

**_Dude wtf_ **

_I literally forgot we aren't supposed to do that_

_It's so unnatural!!!!!_

_I was super counting on starting senior year off with an amazing crush for u_

**Yeah thanks, way to rub it in**

_I'm sorry :(_

_We'll find u another_

_Or u can pine dramatically_

***Gif of a toddler falling dramatically on the floor***

**Already on it**

_I'll bring u all the cookies_

_Meaning I'll let u eat one of my cookies_

_That ur going to buy me from Milk Jar :D_

**Great. Love that for me**

_Lol love u bb_

_Happy working *Kiss face emoji*_

***Kiss face emoji***


	7. Wylan - Second Day of School

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wylan makes a new batch of friends.

Despite being up too late working on his revenge chemistry project, Wylan awoke on Tuesday feeling remarkably chipper. As predicted, his long talk with Kuwei had helped him sort through everything and cheered him up immensely. Although a small portion of the conversation was dedicated to Kuwei making extremely inappropriate jokes about every part of Jesper’s anatomy and roasting Wylan for wearing a scarf on his first day (“At least you won’t have to formally come out to anyone now”), he also had plenty of comforting words and sound advice, for which Wylan was grateful.

He rushed through breakfast and made it a point to be at school before anyone else arrived. He had dressed down today--a gray hoodie and jeans--to try to keep as low a profile as possible. 

To try to stay calm as he waited, he listened to the flute piece he was learning. It was a fairly difficult one and he was completely in love with it; the goal was to have it perfected and memorized by Halloween. The minutes ticked by until it was almost first bell and Wylan’s anxiety about being late started to flare. _Of course he couldn’t be on time,_ he thought. _Nice job being a jerk to me even by accident, Dirk._

By far the hardest part was keeping still when he spotted Jesper roll in. He was driving a bright red, older model Chevy pickup that looked well-loved and was adorned with a plethora of bumper stickers. Wylan couldn’t read them, of course, but he did spot the pink, yellow and blue of the pansexual flag down in one corner, and a green and white 4-H decal in the rear window. Wylan found himself even more intrigued by Jesper’s personal life.

Finally, just when Wylan had decided he’d rather tough out one more day with a difficult lab partner than be late to calculus, Dirk made an appearance. He was with a couple other people--also bros, Wylan noted without surprise--and Wylan could tell without even being able to hear them that they were being obnoxious. He waited until they had enough of a head start, then put up his hood to hide his bright hair, got out of the car and quietly trailed them inside to Dirk’s locker.

It wasn’t hard to stay unnoticed; flying under the radar was another skill Wylan had been honing pretty much his entire life. Luckily, Dirk’s locker was nowhere near his own--that made his mission a little harder, but avoiding Dirk in real life a lot easier, which was nice. Wylan made a mental note of the locker number and then slipped back to his own to grab his books.

He made it to calculus just as Mrs. Levin was closing the door, which made his heart rate spike. _But you got the information you needed_ , he reminded himself--that helped a little. He was disappointed to see that his desk from yesterday had a textbook on it already, until Inej caught his eye and pointed at the chair as she removed the book. Wylan breathed a sigh of relief as he sat down and mouthed _thank you_ at Inej.

“I like sitting next to the quiet ones,” she whispered.

Wylan grinned appreciatively, and they both sat in contented silence for the rest of class.

When the bell rang, Inej turned to him again expectantly.

“Hey, if you don’t have other plans you’re welcome to join me at lunch. My friends are a special brand of nuts, but we’re nice.”

 _Did that mean lunch with Jesper?!_ Wylan’s stomach fluttered and he felt a silly grin spread over his face. So much for playing it cool. 

“I’d like that,” he said. He was really going to have to figure out how to have more chill if he expected to get through an entire lunch at the same table as The Dimple.

“Inej!” someone called from the doorway. Right on cue, the voluptuous girl from yesterday was back. Inej threw her a quick wave.

“That’s Nina, you’ll meet her later,” she said. “See ya!”

Even though he was aware she was leaving, Wylan still almost missed Inej’s departure. As he watched her slip around the desks to the door, he got the strange sense that she would have been just as comfortable and graceful leaping from desktop to desktop, and the image of her as a cat burglar popped into his head once again.

The rest of the morning passed in a haze. Wylan did his best to pay attention but more often than not found himself thinking of entirely un-scholastic things, such as how appealing Jesper’s long fingers had looked as they handled the chemistry beakers. Now more than ever he was grateful to have his voice recorder, because he genuinely could not have repeated a single thing he heard in class all morning. When the lunch bell finally rang after band, Wylan hustled to his locker to swap his flute for his sandwich, and then dipped into the nearest bathroom to take a nervous pee and make sure he looked presentable.

His hair was hopeless today, he decided, as he tried to get his curls to do...well, anything other than what they were doing. After a few attempts, he realized he was just sabotaging his own valuable time and joined the herd headed for the cafeteria.

In seventh grade, Wylan had gotten his first (conscious) crush on another boy, Patrick, and experienced for the first time the special brand of psychic radar that alerts someone to their crush’s presence whether or not they can actually see them. Kuwei began referring to it as “Patrick-dar” and the term lived on as Patrick-dar gave way to Colin-dar and then Stefan-dar.

Now, as Wylan walked into the cafeteria, his Jesper-dar did not let him down. He spotted the group’s table almost without looking, and immediately after was seized with a bout of shyness. The group was already sitting down, and the idea of just showing up at the table unannounced was overwhelming. _But Inej asked you to_ , Wylan reminded himself. Knowing what little he did of Inej, he knew her invitation had been sincere, but it still took all his willpower to get his feet to move his feet in their direction. He was dreading the final few feet of his journey, in case they didn’t see him and he had to say hello first.

In a divine act of mercy, Nina spotted him when he was still some distance from the table.

“WYLAN!” she yelled, waving enthusiastically. Jesper and Inej, who were facing away from him, also turned around and waved. Wylan felt so relieved he almost forgot to be self-conscious. 

Nina gestured him into the spot next to her, and he ended up sitting at the opposite corner from Jesper and directly facing a sharp-looking boy with dark hair who hadn’t bothered to turn around when Wylan approached. Inej, Nina, and Jesper were all smiling at him, which would have made him extremely uncomfortable had they not looked so kind.

“I’m so glad you found us!” Inej said. “Everyone, this is Wylan. We have calculus together and he’s new, obviously.”

“We’ve seen each other around but hello officially. I’m Nina,” said Nina. Now that she was close to him, Wylan found she smelled amazing, somehow earthy and expensive at the same time. She gestured at the handsome blond boy next to her. “This is Matthias, my _Fjerdan loverrrr_...oh good, he remembered how to blush. Of course you already know Inej; that tall drink of water is Jesper, obviously; and the ray of sunshine across from you is Kaz.”

Kaz was giving Wylan a very intense look that he wasn’t entirely sure what to do with. It wasn’t unfriendly exactly, but he also got the feeling they definitely weren’t going to be chumming around together anytime soon. At least it was distracting him from thinking too hard about Jesper for the moment. He gave everyone a little wave and opened his sandwich. 

Nina whistled. “Daaaamn, did you make that? What’s in there?”

“Umm...just a bunch of leftovers, honestly,” Wylan said shyly. But it was a pretty magnificent sandwich if he did say so himself. For Wylan, cooking was chemistry of the heart and he did it often. 

“Wow, I’m going to have to step up my game,” Nina said, shaking her head. “Soooo...how was your first day? Oh, sorry!” she apologized as she realized Wylan had just taken a big bite. He was now remembering that fully loaded sandwiches were not the most ideal food to eat in front of a group of new people.

At least taking time to chew gave him a minute to think about how detailed of an answer he wanted to give Nina’s question. 

“Normal, I guess?” he shrugged. “I haven’t been at a new school since sixth grade, so it’s definitely weird.” He ventured a look at Jesper, but Jesper was focusing on his own sandwich and didn’t look up.

“I heard you had an eventful first chemistry class,” Nina said, looking sideways at him.

Jesper’s head came up. “Nina!!”

“What?? It’s not exactly a secret that Dirk is a huge asshole,” Nina said defensively. 

Jesper snorted and finally looked towards Wylan, although he avoided his eyes. “We’ve all had our special moments with Dirk. But he also...doesn’t really mess with us anymore,” he added darkly.

This sounded like just the kind of juicy gang tea Wylan was secretly dying to know but couldn’t ask about. Yet.

“I figured there would be assholes here, too,” he said. “When I came out last year it was definitely a dumpster fire for a while.” Being out was new enough to him that Wylan’s heart still sped up when he talked about it, but he also wanted to let Jesper know unequivocally that he was into boys. He knew there would probably be a time, later in life, when talking about his sexuality came naturally; for now, every time he came out to someone in conversation and they still welcomed him it felt like the most wonderful gift. 

Nina and Jesper were nodding sympathetically. 

“Same same,” Nina said. “I came out in like seventh grade, but I had it easier because you know...I’d been kissing every gender since I was like five, AND I do theatahhhhh,” she said dramatically. “So it was basically like, not a surprise to anyone,” she laughed. Her laugh was big and infectious and Wylan couldn’t help but laugh with her. 

“You’d think it wouldn’t have been a surprise about the little baby-faced kid who plays flute and used to borrow his mother’s scarves, either, but somehow...” he shrugged. He wasn’t too used to making jokes like that with people who weren’t Kuwei, but this got a laugh out of everyone and a smirk out of stone-faced Kaz, which Wylan counted as a good sign. 

He was hoping Jesper would share his story too, but he was looking at his phone. Wylan pushed down hard on the little knot of betrayal he felt welling up in his chest, and turned his attention back to his sandwich. Why did he feel so hurt? Jesper owed him nothing.

There was a small, somewhat odd pause and then Nina took a deep breath.

“Ok so. We know who your dad is,” she said. Wylan’s stomach dropped and his face must have been as fiery as it felt because Inej rushed to the rescue.

“But that’s _not_ why we want to hang out with you. Well, in a way it kind of is. But--” she faltered.

“It’s more like we’ve been following the news on your dad for a while and we were keeping track of how everything went down--ok, that also sounds kind of wrong when I say it like that,” Nina said, looking upset.

“They do this a lot, honestly it’s not just you,” Matthias chimed in for the first time. 

“Well now you’re making it sound like we take just _anybody_ ,” Jesper said, looking peeved.

“Oh for fuck’s sake.” Kaz’s voice came out of nowhere and was a complete shock to Wylan. He didn’t know what kind of a voice he was expecting out of a slender teenage boy with a killer undercut, but it definitely wasn’t “recently swallowed a handful of rocks and washed them down with whiskey.” Regardless, it was extremely effective. Everyone shut up and looked at Kaz.

“You’re all hopeless,” Kaz said to the group at large. He turned to Wylan. “We’re the Dregs. We built this family for ourselves because none of us have much of one otherwise. I’m sure some of our more _forthcoming_ members--” his eyes flicked meaningfully to Nina and Jesper-- “will tell you their entire life stories and probably fill you in on the rest of us as well, so I’ll leave it at that. But besides being chosen family we’ve also built ourselves a reputation and people here leave us alone.

“Rules one, two, and three are: no lying, no cheating, no snitching. We don’t bring just anyone in, but we do keep an eye on other people who might need protection around the school.”

“In other words, we bully the bullies,” Nina stage-whispered in Wylan’s ear.

Kaz raised an eyebrow at her. “Sure. Ok rule number four: Dregs first, meaning if you’re going to be stupid you do it on your own time, in a way that doesn’t threaten the integrity of the gang. I don’t care what you do in your personal life, but if it finds its way here and upsets the dynamic, there will be consequences. You can ask Jesper about that sometime.” 

Wylan threw a quick glance at Jesper, who was looking uncomfortable. _What could Jesper possibly have done that would have warranted what sounded like capital-C Consequences?_ Wylan’s mind was going a mile a minute but he snapped back to attention so as not to completely miss what Kaz was saying.

“...occasionally, we... _arrange_ things in a certain way in order to achieve a certain outcome. I’m going to assume you don’t have any contact with your dad’s world anymore, but if you did, and this goes for pretty much everyone else you talk to too, the last rule, in regards to Dregs business, is the number one rule in Fight Club.”

“Why do you still use that analogy? You _hated_ Fight Club,” Nina interrupted.

“Because it’s easy and everyone knows what it means,” Kaz replied. “And I like effective shortcuts.” He focused back on Wylan. “So that’s pretty much it. If you like how it sounds, welcome. If not, then you go your own way and we’ll see you around.” He steepled his fingers and leveled an expectant look at Wylan.

“Ok, yes.” Wylan had absolutely no idea what to say other than that, and as it was coming out of his mouth he realized Kaz hadn’t even actually asked him a question. His cheeks warmed a bit but he pulled himself together and looked shyly around the group, feeling a little flicker of brightness spread in his chest. There was something about the gang that he was instantaneously and unquestioningly in love with. Maybe it was their easiness with each other, or their fierce loyalty to Kaz; Inej’s quietly smiling eyes, Nina’s infectious laugh, Matthias’ solid presence, and Jesper...oh god, Jesper. Where could Wylan even begin with him? He was totally smitten and had given up on trying to pretend otherwise to himself. 

“So do you want to join?” Nina finally asked, after a long silence. 

“Yes,” Wylan almost didn’t let her finish, he was so quick to answer. “I really do.”

Everyone turned and aimed big happy grins at Wylan, except Kaz, who Wylan was beginning to suspect only had three or four variations of the same exact facial expression. 

Matthias lifted his thermos in a toast. “To our newest member. Congratulations and thank you, I’m no longer the baby of the group.” That got a laugh out of everyone as they raised whatever beverage they had in front of them.

“To Wylan!” Inej said.

“To Wylan!” they chorused. Wylan blushed hard but he felt so happy he didn’t even care. He had friends. Sure, they were all a little weird and intense and maybe (probably) committing lowkey felonies on the side, but they were also smart and funny and warm. He looked over at Jesper to try to share a moment but Jesper was laughing at Nina and not looking at him. Wylan tried not to let it dampen his mood--Jesper was just one boy and it was ridiculous to put so much weight on whether or not they made eye contact or not. Maybe he’d simply misread Jesper’s earlier signals. 

No--he _knew_ he hadn’t. Jesper had sought him out yesterday; Wylan was new to openly flirting, but not _that_ new. Something had definitely changed between yesterday afternoon and now, but he didn’t know what.

Suddenly he remembered what Kaz had said mere minutes before: ‘if you’re going to be stupid you do it on your own time, in a way that doesn’t threaten the integrity of the gang’ _._ _Of course_. Kaz was telling Wylan that if he fooled around with Jesper and it got messy, they both risked “consequences”, whatever those were. His heart sank as he realized the unintentional trade he’d just made with himself: he had gained proximity to Jesper in the easiest, most fortuitous way, but in return he could never do anything about it. 

Wylan felt suddenly claustrophobic and his heart started to pound. He switched to slow belly-breaths to try to get his anxiety under control and silently listed off things he could see in the room, a tactic which generally worked except in the worst cases. He was going to need a _lot_ of time to work through this in his brain, but right now was not that time. Wylan took one more hopeful glance in Jesper’s direction. _One more try and then I won’t look at him ever again_ , Wylan bargained with himself. 

He was about to give up and look away when Jesper met his eyes. It was so intense that Wylan felt it in his whole body, and the range of emotions playing out on Jesper’s face tugged at Wylan’s heartstrings and gave him butterflies. _I wasn’t_ _imagining it_ , he thought with relief. Then Jesper abruptly broke eye contact and looked down with a pained expression, shaking his head slightly as if disappointed in himself. 

He didn’t look at Wylan again.


	8. Jesper - Second Day of School

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jesper makes a surprising discovery about the new kid.

Ugh, Wylan was fucking unbearable. He was cute and funny and looked so adorable when he blushed…and he blushed _so easily_ , too. Jesper would be the first to say he didn’t have a type (“Just as long as they have a sense of humor”), but as a rule he wasn’t usually drawn to anyone as just plain _wholesome_ as Wylan...and to be quite frank he was absolutely dying to tear down that wall of wholesomeness piece by piece. Preferably with his mouth, because he’d never wanted to taste anything so badly as he did Wylan’s enticing lips. 

Oh god. “Enticing lips”? _Who the fuck do I think I am??_ Jesper rolled his eyes at himself. _Anyway, he’s off limits unless you want to get Kazzed again._

He would just have to forget about it, that’s all. The moment at the end of lunch where he made the mistake of meeting Wylan’s eyes was a fluke; going forward, he was going to have to be more careful until the crush faded itself out. Sooner or later they all did, and a new one was inevitably on deck. Jesper had not once been without a crush or a “situationship” (as Nina called it) since he was thirteen years old.

He had been an endlessly active and curious child, always running and climbing and poking his little hands into whatever machine or mess he could. Although Jesper’s family’s farm was only 30 minutes outside of town, they might as well have been on a whole other continent as far as other families were concerned. On top of that, he was homeschooled for most of elementary school; suffice to say, Jesper didn’t have much in the way of playmates until his dad finally sent him to public school for sixth grade. 

He would never forget walking into the classroom on the first day, feeling whatever the exact opposite of nervous was. The first sentence on his first ever report card was, “Well, he’s not shy…” 

He got a charge from finally being able to talk to kids his age--or any age, really. With his gift for banter and wicked sense of humor, Jesper was effortlessly easy to be around and likewise comfortable talking to just about anyone. 

Needless to say, he had never had to work too hard at finding someone who wanted to smooch him, once he got to the age where he cared about that kind of thing. And that suited him just fine--Jesper liked distractions, and what better distraction was there than a soul-crushing, life-altering crush or a quick fling every few months? 

Except now, he was realizing that he’d never before had to actually _wait_ for a crush to go away of its own accord. Under normal circumstances, he would flirt shamelessly until the other person noticed, fun times would be had by all for a while, and then inevitably around the time the excitement was wearing off, both parties (but mostly Jesper) would decide it was better to drift apart.

The truth was, Jesper was the most unreadable open book in the history of literature. His partners found him charming, fun-loving, and absolutely sincere in the moment, but also fairly unwilling to talk about anything too personal, and adept at deflecting questions that he felt were too deep. Ex-lovers of his came away feeling a glow for having once occupied his affections, occasionally heart-broken, and always incapable of telling anyone what Jesper Fahey was actually like. For better or worse, the Dregs were the only ones who truly had his heart and were occasionally allowed to see his soul. 

Jesper looked up and realized he had walked all the way to his locker on autopilot, his mind bouncing around like a demonic ping pong ball. The rest of the day passed in a similar blur, his mind wandering in and out of class as he spent half his time unintentionally daydreaming about Wylan and the other half reminding himself not to do that.

Finally, the most important bell of the day rang—it was time for chemistry and Jesper found his adrenaline going a bit as he thought about being next to Wylan for the next hour. He was fighting with his locker combination again when his senses tingled and he looked up, for no reason at all really, except suddenly there was Wylan. Jesper lifted his arm to wave, but--

 _Wait, what’s he doing at this end of the lockers?_ he wondered. If he didn’t know better, he’d think he was--oh hold up, yes he _was_. Jesper had done more than his fair share of furtive roaming in his lifetime, and he knew an undercover mission when he saw one: Wylan was undeniably sneaking. He had put his hood up, and his head was down--just a tad too much to look truly casual, Jesper noted with a professional eye. But it still did the trick; Wylan might as well have been a ghost for all that anyone noticed him.

Wylan stopped and stood near the bank of lockers a few down and across from Jesper, seemingly looking at his phone. Someone brushed by him and he casually put up one hand as if to steady himself on the locker behind him. If Jesper hadn’t been well-trained in the art of making extremely un-casual things seem casual, as well as already looking for something suspicious, he would have missed it. As it was, he saw Wylan’s fingers slip something through the slashes in the locker door. It must have been very small because Jesper hadn’t seen him holding it, but as soon as it was done Wylan put his phone in his pocket and walked away, just slowly enough to look like he wasn’t trying to escape. _Well now this is interesting,_ Jesper thought. _What could that have been?_ He took note of the locker number and turned back to his own stubborn combo.

In his opinion, the only things worth being so cagey about were either drugs or a love note. Neither of those things really fit into the picture of Wylan he was currently piecing together, but hey--maybe he’d been wildly wrong about him. He certainly knew plenty of rich kids who sold drugs, and no one ever said a person couldn’t eye-fuck someone one day and then put a love note in someone else’s locker the next. Hell, he’d done that himself on more than one occasion.

But when he really considered the odds of either of those things being true, he knew that wasn’t what was going on. Wylan had been at this school for less than two days, which (unless he was an absolute wizard) wasn’t enough time to establish a drug business _or_ enough of a relationship with someone to warrant a love note. Jesper was utterly stumped; he was just going to have to loiter and see whose locker it was to see if that gave him a clue.

He didn’t have to wait too long; a couple minutes later, Dirk showed up and headed directly to the locker Wylan had just left. _Ahaaaaa_ , Jesper thought. _So this probably has something to do with class yesterday._ His curiosity now thoroughly piqued, he grabbed his books and mall-walked to chemistry, hoping to beat Dirk by a wide margin so he could have a few uninterrupted minutes with Wylan. Lucky for him, Anika hadn’t shown up today--she tended to only come to class when she felt like it and just often enough to keep from getting expelled. 

Wylan had his notebook open and was furiously writing in it when Jesper walked in. He looked like he was concentrating hard, but Jesper was pretty sure it was just so he’d have something to do while he sat alone. Jesper slid into his spot and dropped his books on the table from about eighteen inches up so they made a bang, accomplishing his goal of making Wylan jump. He looked over and flushed. _Oh lordy, I need to stop making him do that,_ Jesper thought. 

“Thanks for the heart attack,” Wylan said, looking miffed.

“No problem at all, I’d attack your heart anytime,” Jesper said. As soon as it was out of his mouth he realized how unnecessarily suggestive it sounded. _Fuck._ Not flirting was going to be harder than he’d imagined. “What are you writing?” he added quickly, trying to recover. _Get it together, Jes._

Wylan put his hand over his notes, not like he was trying to cover them up but more like he was trying to protect them. 

“Not writing,” he said. “I, um...I’m dyslexic, like really bad. So I basically kind of just...draw my notes sometimes. Not all the time. I have a recorder too but drawing helps me remember better.”

Jesper could not have been more surprised and his eyebrows shot up. “Wow, no kidding? That’s so wild! You must be so good at drawing. Can I see? Or--sorry, is that too personal? I’m not like, morbidly curious about your dyslexia or anything, I’ve just never met anyone who _draws_ their notes and that’s honestly pretty awesome.” Jesper heard his mouth running amok and couldn’t do a thing about it. Luckily Wylan didn’t seem to notice, or if he did he was being very gracious.

“They’re not personal,” he shook his head. “Or not the way you mean, anyway. They’re personal in the way that like...I’m probably the only person who can actually understand them,” he grinned. “But by all means.”

He turned his notebook sideways and pushed it towards Jesper. He was right: Jesper couldn’t really understand much of anything that was on the page. It was an odd combination of symbols and tiny scenic diagrams, many of which featured stick figures, with each little vignette numbered. Jesper whistled.

“Holy hell, that is _bananas_ ,” he said. “What class is this for?”

“Government,” Wylan said, wrinkling his nose. 

“Not a fan, huh?” Jesper asked sympathetically.

“Ehh, it’s just, you know, I got a lot of that already with my dad. I’m pretty over it,” Wylan shrugged. He sounded casual but something about the way his face tightened made Jesper think that that wound was probably a little too fresh for him to be poking at just yet. He filed that away for later and pushed the notebook back.

“So I assume you’re in band since you were sitting with all the band kids yesterday. What do you play?” Jesper asked. Not the smoothest segway, but he felt a subject change was in order.

Wylan broke out in a wide smile, but as he started to answer, his face changed. His eyes darted to the door and then quickly back to Jesper as he tucked his hands into his hoodie pockets and made himself visibly smaller. Jesper was perplexed until Dirk walked into his line of view and sauntered over to take his place next to Wylan. Jesper saw Wylan’s shoulders stiffen and he wished he could give him a reassuring pat or anything to let him know he was ok and not alone. Instead, he gave Dirk a death stare that he hoped would get the point across: _mess with that adorable curly-haired angel and you’ll regret it, bub._

Dirk either didn’t notice or chose to ignore Jesper’s glare as he moved pointedly into Wylan’s personal space. He looked over at Jesper and nodded at Anika’s empty chair. 

“Where’s your dumb dyke girlfriend today?” he asked. 

Jesper rolled his eyes and didn’t deign to answer. Engaging with Dirk was always a mistake. He knew enough by now to leave the Dregs physically alone, but still enjoyed taunting them when he thought he could get away with it, particularly in front of new people. 

Annoyed at Jesper’s silence, Dirk gave up on trying to bait him and turned his attention to Wylan’s still-open notebook. 

“What the fuck is that?” he asked, so genuinely surprised that he actually forgot to call Wylan a name.

Wylan was red again, but not in the cute way. He closed the notebook and put his arms on it as though he expected Dirk to try to snatch it (a wise expectation, Jesper noted). 

“Nothing,” he said quietly, avoiding turning towards Dirk. Jesper was surprised to see that Wylan held his ground, though. People generally tried to move away from Dirk as fast as possible once he was in their bubble like that, but Wylan was just sitting there with his lips pressed together stubbornly and his fists clenched on top of his notebook. Jesper suddenly wanted to hug him.

Dirk started grabbing at the notebook, trying to find an edge under Wylan’s arm while bumping his shoulder into Wylan’s.

“Let me see, new kid,” he said in an obnoxious tone that was somehow whiny and threatening at the same time. 

“ _Stop_ ,” Wylan said, jostling Dirk with his shoulder in return. He was either being willfully stupid or disturbingly naive, Jesper thought: there was no other way Wylan couldn’t have guessed that pushing Dirk back was a terrible idea. Jesper flinched and prepared to step in. 

“I said _stop,”_ Wylan repeated, and put his hand out to push Dirk away, only somehow he missed by a comically large margin, and his hand ended up in Dirk’s hoodie pocket instead. 

Jesper blinked. _What the heck was that??_ He didn’t have time to wonder though, because Dirk reacted about how Jesper had anticipated and started getting red in the face, a sure sign he was about to do something extra mean. Jesper hopped off his chair and was between the other two in an instant. His brain made a side note that up close, Wylan smelled _amazing_ , but he didn’t let that thought distract him as he looked down at Dirk. 

“Back. Off,” he said, his voice low and deadly. “He’s in the Dregs now. You can keep it up but you bet your ass you’ll be getting a friendly visit from one of us if you do.”

Dirk was almost purple but he took a step back. He refused to meet Jesper’s eyes but looked around him to Wylan again.

“Of course he is,” he spat. “You people all stick together, don’t they?”

Jesper couldn’t resist a cocky grin. “You bet we do.”

Just then, Ms. Cochran hustled in and set her stuff down in a hurry so she could start clapping at the wild throng of students in front of her.

“Ok ok ok, you ruffians! Settle it down!” she had to almost shout to be heard.

Jesper extricated himself from between Dirk and Wylan and gave Wylan’s other shoulder a little solidarity-bump on his way back to his table. He had never pulled the “Dregs protection” bit on anyone in front of a crush before, and it felt pretty damn good. He looked over at Wylan, who was still a bit pink and looked slightly frazzled. His curls were mussed and Jesper reminded himself not to think about putting his hands in Wylan’s hair. 

It looked really soft. 

_Dammit._

Ms. Cochran finally succeeded in getting the class’s attention and began to talk through that day’s experiment. Wylan opened a different notebook and started writing down the formulas along with little diagrams like the ones in his other book. 

Jesper tried to follow along but found himself bogged down in the terminology, and something...else that was starting to become very apparent from the table to his right.

By the time everyone was setting up their equipment, it had become impossible to ignore: either Wylan or Dirk was cutting some mean cheese and a cloud was slowly spreading outward from their vicinity. Jesper darted a look at Wylan; he figured if Wylan had gas, his cheeks ( _FACE cheeks,_ Jesper giggled to himself) would definitely give it away. 

No such luck. Wylan looked cool as a cucumber but he glanced at Jesper and made a who-dunnit face, then raised his eyebrows and tipped his head in Dirk’s direction. In fact, Dirk _did_ look mightily uncomfortable; the smell was getting stronger and it was now abundantly clear that it was coming from somewhere in or on his person. Wylan pointedly scooted his chair away from him. Jesper narrowed his eyes at Dirk as if he could see through him to the cause of the odor.

“What are you looking at, assfucker?” Dirk hissed at Jesper, clearly self-conscious. Jesper gazed back, keeping his face pointedly innocent to hide the fact that he was about to absolutely lose it laughing.

“Excuse me, Mr. Brockner,” Ms. Cochran suddenly appeared in front of Dirk. “Did you say--oh,” she interrupted herself with a small cough as the fart cloud enveloped her. “What’s going on over here?”

“Ms. Cochran, may I move seats?” Wylan asked, in the politest voice Jesper had ever heard. “No offense,” Wylan said to Dirk, looking angelically regretful. A couple people behind them giggled and Dirk’s face went beet red. The smell was getting steadily worse.

Ms. Cochran took a step back, looking exasperated. “Yes Wylan, you can be partners with Jesper today since it looks like Anika’s missing. I'm not sure what's going on here,” she said to Dirk in a lower voice. “but you may have a pass to go take care of this situation.” 

Dirk huffed as he grabbed his things but he looked relieved as he walked to the door. _I don’t blame him_ , Jesper thought. _Welp, have fun in the bathroom, you literal asshole_. Wylan picked up his things and quietly transferred them to Anika's spot. 

Something seemed strange about Wylan. Or rather, everything seemed normal, which-- given the circumstances--was strange. He didn’t look flustered anymore or even remotely surprised at what had just happened, while Jesper was positively bursting to talk about it. “Bullies being excused from class due to epic farts” was pretty near the top of his list of juicy topics he wanted to discuss immediately and at great length, but Wylan’s face was impassive and he avoided Jesper’s eyes. 

As Wylan settled into his new seat and reopened his notebook, a few things suddenly fell into place in Jesper’s mind and he looked at Wylan, wide-eyed. He glanced up to check Ms. Cochran’s proximity to them, but she was still standing near the front which meant that talking was out of the question. Jesper opened his notebook to a blank page, wrote DID YOU JUST MAGICALLY GIVE DIRK GAS?!?!?!? in messy block letters and slid it towards Wylan.

Wylan glanced down at the paper and looked up at Jesper with an “are you kidding me?” expression. 

“I literally can’t read that,” he whispered. 

“Oh god, I’m so sorry,” Jesper whispered back, mortified and mentally face-palming himself. _Real smooth, Jes._ “It says, ‘did you just magically give Dirk gas?’”

Wylan flushed and started measuring things out a little too carefully.

“Holy hell, you _did_ , didn’t you?! How did you do it? Please tell me your secrets!” Jesper stage-whispered excitedly. Ms. Cochran chose that moment to cruise by their table to check in and Jesper sobered up.

“How’s everyone doing over here?” Ms. Cochran asked

“Fine!” Jesper and Wylan said in the exact same tone, and they both giggled.

“Let me know if you need any help,” Ms Cochran said. “But I think you two should be just fine, if I know either of you at all.” She walked away.

“ _Does_ she know me, though?” Wylan wondered quietly, sounding amused.

“I mean...being a junior in senior-level chemistry means you’re smart, right?” Jesper said, adding something to their mixture. “She probably just assumes you’re going to be good at it.”

Wylan shrugged. “I guess. But what about you?”

“Like why isn’t she worried about me? I dunno, I’m good at understanding how things go together, I guess. Those kinds of things make sense to me.”

“Yeah,” Wylan nodded. “That’s why I like them.”

There was a small half-contented, half awkward silence as they both checked the formula. Then Jesper remembered they’d gotten off track.

“Wait so--back to Dirk’s gas,” he said, keeping his voice low.

Wylan flushed again. “It was pretty bad.”

“‘Pretty bad’? Come on, Goldilocks, you definitely know more than you’re telling me.” Jesper hadn’t meant to give Wylan a nickname but it more or less fell out of his mouth before he could reconsider. Wylan turned even pinker and Jesper pushed away the part of his brain that would have felt smug about that, had Wylan been a normal boy and not a perfect, pretty weirdo who he wasn’t actually allowed to think was perfect and pretty.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Wylan said, utterly unconvincingly. “Also don’t call me that.”

“Oh please!” Jesper snorted and decided to ignore Wylan’s second sentence. “I’ve been in a gang for five years--I can tell when almost anyone’s lying. Plus I saw you at Dirk’s locker earlier.” 

Wylan looked like he was prepared to stay less than forthcoming, so Jesper barreled on. “Do you think I’d tell on you, is that it? I’m legally not allowed to now that you’re in the Dregs. We’re Dregmates. It’s like playmates and inmates at the same time, aka there’s an unbreakable moral code we’re required to follow. It’s very complex and someday we’ll make you kneel and recite it in front of all of us in a blood ceremony, but until that time you’ll just have to trust me.” Jesper put his hand over his heart and gave Wylan his most brilliant smile. “Please.” 

Wylan’s mouth twitched and he sighed dramatically. “Fiiiine, I did it.”

“ _I knew it!_ ” Jesper made a tiny fist pump so as not to attract attention. “That was awesome! Ok so _how?_ ”

Wylan looked around to make sure Ms. Cochran wasn’t going to materialize next to them and leaned towards Jesper slightly.

“I...it’s something I invented a couple years ago,” he said. “It’s basically a little pellet that’s like an extended release thing. You activate it and then it keeps producing the smell for eight hours or so.” 

He looked a little uncomfortable, but whether that was because he didn’t like talking about his accomplishments, or because he didn’t like admitting his guilt, Jesper wasn’t sure. Regardless, he was impressed.

“That’s fucking genius,” he said, delightedly. “So Dirk _and_ Dirk’s locker are going to smell like that until tomorrow.” The full implication of that sank in and he started laughing.

“Actually probably longer,” Wylan said ruefully. “That’s just when the capsule gets used up, but the actual odor itself tends to, you know...stick to stuff. It will probably take a few days before anything's completely fresh.”

That made Jesper laugh harder, which made Wylan start giggling and then they couldn’t stop. Predictably, this summoned Ms. Cochran to their table. She cleared her throat.

“Making progress over here, I see,” she said, sounding amused. “Ok ok, get it together and show me what you’ve done.”

Jesper and Wylan pulled themselves together with some difficulty and Jesper showed her what they’d done so far. He could feel Wylan struggling to keep a straight face next to him. 

Ms. Cochran nodded. “Good, keep it up.” 

Wylan put his face in his hands as she walked away. “I _hate_ _it_ when that happens; it’s like my worst nightmare.”

“What, accidentally having a teacher overhear your diabolical plot to turn Dirk into a fart?” 

“ _No_ \--accidentally laughing in a teacher’s face! It’s so rude.”

Jesper had to laugh at that too. “Come on, you’re literally the politest person I’ve ever met. In fact the Dregs will probably start calling you Wylan the Polite pretty soon.”

“You will not,” Wylan rolled his eyes and his cheeks reddened slightly.

“You’re right, that’s too much. How about Wylan van Wholesome?”

Wylan glared at him with his lips pressed together, but his eyes sparkled. 

Jesper sighed. “Fine. I guess you can just stay Goldilocks instead.”

“Ok but why do all my nicknames have to be terrible?” Wylan complained, about to lose the battle against his own smile.

“Excuse me, those are _my_ nicknames you’re calling terrible,” Jesper grinned. “And wow, thanks--I’m offended. Those were real originals.”

“Guess I’m not living up to Wylan the Polite anymore, huh? Better put that one to bed,” Wylan said, eyebrow raised.

 _I’ll put_ you _to bed._

Jesper would never have said that out loud to someone he'd only known for three hours, but the interior innuendo was like a slap in the face. He was unconsciously flirting. Again. _You're a hot mess,_ he thought with dismay.

“Goldilocks it is, then,” he said instead, making sure to change his tone--he kept it lighthearted so as not to totally derail the mood, but it was no longer as weighted as it had been.

Wylan rolled his eyes. “Fine. But no guarantees I’ll actually answer to that.”

Jesper was dying to continue bantering. Wylan was easily riled and cute when he was, and he clearly didn’t mind. But that was also the entire problem. Jesper didn’t know whether Kaz’s big dramatic “don’t mess with the group dynamics” speech had gotten the point across to Wylan. He either knew what Kaz meant and had decided flirtatious banter was harmless and not to be acted upon--or he hadn’t understood at all. In which case, anything Jesper did to encourage him would be leading him on. 

On the other hand, Jesper bantered with pretty much everyone--that could be his argument if Kaz ever called him out on anything. Using that logic, it was entirely possible he could just get away with being his normal flirtatious self while simultaneously indulging his urge to make Wylan blush as frequently as possible. 

Someone cleared their throat near him and Jesper started. He realized he was fiddling with a beaker and had probably been doing so for much longer than strictly necessary. Wylan was looking at him quizzically.

“Are you ok?” he asked, reaching for the beaker.

Jesper shook his head to clear it. “Yeah, fine. Sorry. Just sidetracked.”

Wylan looked concerned but graciously didn’t try to push the subject. They finished up in a fairly companionable silence--which was a change for Jesper, but something he found he actually enjoyed. Wylan was comfortable to be around. _That is, when he’s not accidentally trying to murder me with those eyes,_ Jesper thought.

Inevitably, the bell rang and inevitably, Wylan jumped and then laughed at himself.

“Ugh, you’d think I’d never been to school before,” he said as he gathered up his things.

“But we know that’s not true because you had to come up with the genius fart pellet _somehow_ ,” Jesper said, grinning. “I’m literally never going to get over that. I can’t wait til you tell the rest of the group. Are you coming to Waffle Wednesday tomorrow?”

“I...don’t know?” Wylan looked confused. “What is that?”

“Oh--it’s a thing we’ve been doing forever. Nina’s parents are hella rich and basically just do rich people things all the time like, go on cruises or hang out on islands or whatever. But they never take her so she pretty much just does whatever she wants with the house.” 

They started down the hall towards the lockers and Jesper continued. “Anyway, every Wednesday we go over and make waffles and do homework and stuff. It’s great and you should totally come over. If you’re free,” he added, realizing that he really had no idea how busy or not Wylan’s social life was outside of school. 

Wylan grinned. “I’d love to.” Then his face fell. “Wait, I can’t. I’m supposed to hang out with a friend tomorrow. I haven’t seen him in forever.”

Wylan stopped as they reached his locker and Jesper stopped with him. He couldn’t help but admit he was disappointed he wouldn’t get to see Wylan outside of school tomorrow, but he didn’t let it show.

“That’s ok,” he said. “There’s always next week, or literally any other week. Wait, how do you remember your locker combo if…” he trailed off, realizing how insensitive he sounded. “Ah shit, that was a stupid thing to say, I’m sorry.” 

Wylan shrugged. “It’s ok,” he said. "Umm, numbers have always been fine for some reason. That’s why I like math.”

“Oooh ok, nerd,” Jesper grinned. “Math, chemistry, music...what else are you good at?”

“You don’t _know_ I’m good at music,” Wylan said, getting pink again. 

Jesper quirked an eyebrow at him. “I’m willing to bet.” 

Wylan blushed even harder. Jesper decided it was time to bail and checked his phone as a segway.

“I have to go,” he said. “But I’ll see ya tomorrow. You think Dirk will still be out?”

“Maybe?” Wylan said. “I can keep re-upping whenever he gets fresh though. With enough reinforcement maybe he’ll learn.”

Jesper laughed. “Like training a puppy,” he said. “But bigger and way less cute.”

“Exactly.”

Jesper put his hand on his heart dramatically. “You’re the hero we’ve all been waiting for. And on that note--godspeed, Goldilocks.” 

He turned on his heel and walked away with Wylan’s goodbye fading behind him. Ok, so he hadn’t been entirely successful at keeping the banter to a minimum, but considering he had years of habit to undo, he decided to go easy on himself. 

Everything was going to be just fine.


	9. Waffle Wednesday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Waffles and a whole bunch of talking.

“Jesper, _get out of the way,”_ Nina said, for possibly the tenth time. Her family’s enormous kitchen was full of Dregs--minus Wylan, who was still on his way--and the big center island was covered in ingredients and waffle toppings. Nina put her hands on Jesper’s shoulders and steered him over to a pot of strawberry puree cooking on the stove.

“For the love of all that is holy, stay here,” she said, handing him a spatula. “Stir this and leave me alone.” 

Jesper dutifully began stirring, although he still shifted in place restlessly as he did. Inej and Nina exchanged a look behind his back and Kaz caught it.

“Cool it, Jes,” he rasped. “Nothing’s changed. Same deal, different location.”

If Jesper was capable of blushing, he would have. He _hated_ it when Kaz saw through him and hated it even more that Kaz had had to remind him out loud that he was being a hot mess. The school time he spent with Wylan was fun and yes, occasionally accidentally-on-purpose flirtatious (when they were out of eyeshot of Kaz), but school was neutral territory. This was different. They hadn’t had a new person over for Waffle Wednesday since Matthias had joined, and of course Matthias had never been someone Jesper thought about kissing every time they were in the same room together (and often when they weren’t). 

_Cool it, Jes._

Dammit Kaz, you infuriating bastard. Jesper would never admit it, but it still stung a bit after all these years that Kaz had infallibly sniffed out every crush he’d ever had, yet not once acknowledged what he must have known from the minute they met--that for a long time, Jesper had carried a torch for him and on some level probably always would. It was just one of the many Kaz subjects that would live unspoken and awkward between them until it died a silent death.

Jesper really, really hoped this Wylan situation panned out differently, but right now he had his doubts.

He was snapped out of his reverie by Inej materializing next to him, spoon in hand. Jesper jumped and she grinned.

“Quality control reporting in,” she said, taking a spoonful of sauce.

“Careful, it’s hot,” Jesper said, out of habit and completely unnecessarily. Inej was already blowing on the sauce as she turned around and boosted herself up--gracefully and one-handed--to perch on the countertop next to him. Behind them, Nina yelled “Yassss this song!” and turned the music up, and Jesper’s mood began to lift in spite of himself.

“Don’t worry about it,” Inej said. She kept her voice low, although “Stupid Love” was successfully drowning out pretty much every other sound in the kitchen. “It’s going to be weird for a few minutes but then it’ll be fine, just like the first few days at school.”

“Ugh, I know,” Jesper said. “I don’t know what’s going on with me. I was doing great at school and now it feels like he’s like...meeting my dad for the first time or something. Which is so ridiculous on so many levels.”

Inej looked sympathetic. “Not ridiculous,” she said. “It’s--” She stopped short as the volume on the music went drastically down.

“Wylan is here,” Matthias said impassively from behind Jesper, his hand still on the speaker and Wylan by his side. Jesper met Inej’s eyes and she winked.

“You’re fine,” she whispered.

“Stay here,” Jesper whispered back, suddenly in need of a security blanket.

“Hooray!” Nina said, wrapping an arm around Wylan and holding the bowl of waffle batter in the other. “You’re just in time to sit and loaf around like these other assholes while I do _all the work_.” She directed the last bit towards Kaz and Matthias, who, Wylan couldn’t deny, did indeed look like they were loafing.

“Hey, _I’m_ helping!” Jesper protested over his shoulder. “Hi, Wylan.”

Wylan gave him a wave and put his backpack down, trying not to look too hard at Jesper--since when had he had a septum ring? F _uck my life,_ Wylan thought. The little gold barbel made Jesper look even more roguish than he already did, and drew attention to his beautifully shaped upper lip. As if the whole Jesper package wasn’t already appealing enough. 

Wylan cleared his throat. "I can help," he offered.

Nina waved him off. “Technically we all rotate weeks, and this is mine,” she said, pouring a fresh batch of batter into the two waffle irons on the island. “And no one _has_ to help unless they want to. I’m just giving them a hard time because they’re men.”

“Would you like anything to drink?” Inej asked, hopping off the counter and crossing to the fridge. “There’s La Croix, orange juice, this awesome ginger beer that Jesper’s dad makes--non-alcoholic--and oooh, some milk that expired...wow, _three weeks ago_?” She aimed the last bit at Nina, who rolled her eyes.

“That’s literally Jesper’s milk from that time he bought all those Lucky Charms and then got high and ate them plain,” Nina said. “I assumed Matthias would drink it because he’s a growing boy.”

Matthias looked offended. “I would never just drink someone else’s drink,” he said. “And I have my own fridge.”

“I recommend the ginger beer,” Inej said to Wylan, who nodded. She took an old-fashioned-looking brown spring-top growler from the fridge and poured him a glass. Wylan sipped it and immediately sneezed, caught off guard by the fizz and spiciness. Despite the initial surprise, it was delicious.

“Ooh sorry, I should have warned you!” Jesper said over his shoulder. “My dad makes it strong so it holds up to the rum in Dark and Stormies. Also he’s just weirdly obsessed with ginger.”

“No, it’s really good!” Wylan said. “I was just...expecting ginger ale, I think.” He took another sip and relaxed enough to let himself take in the scene. As he counted bodies, he realized he had never actually been in the same room with this many friends before. Thanks to his father’s job, he had always been a pretty isolated child--not counting Kuwei, of course, who had been his closest (and often only) friend since he was six. On the first day of first grade, Kuwei had sprinted over to Wylan, kissed his cheek, said, “If you don’t race me to the swings I’ll poop on you,” and continued his sprint towards the swing set. Wylan lost the race but won Kuwei’s friendship. 

Now he was surrounded. Everyone had gone back to their conversations--which essentially amounted to everyone yelling over each other because Nina kept turning the music back up every time Matthias turned it down. Jesper was stirring something on the stove and Nina was forking the cooked waffles out of the irons and pouring in the last bit of batter, the whole room smelled amazing, and Wylan felt a sudden rush of happiness. He wanted to go stand next to Jesper and help him stir; everything about that situation sounded appealing. 

But there was Kaz to think about--Kaz who was sitting on one of the high chairs that flanked one side of the enormous kitchen island and shrewdly watching everyone. _Is Kaz capable of ‘just looking’ at anything or is he always shrewd_? Wylan wondered. He was observant himself--he had to be, growing up like he did--but Kaz was on a whole other level. It was admirable, and intimidating as hell. Although, ever since Wylan’s talents for revenge chemistry had come to light, he sensed that Kaz at least respected him now.

Jesper took the pot off the stove and waved it near Nina’s face.

“Is this done?” he asked.

“Stop moving it!” Nina grabbed his arm in one hand and flexed her other fingers at Jesper. “Spatula, please.” 

She dipped into the sauce and blew on it before putting almost the entire thing into her mouth. Wylan blinked. 

“Mmmm perfect!” Nina declared. “I’m a wizard. Can you pour it into that bowl there near the whipped cream?” 

Jesper obliged, working the spatula around the pot to get the last drops, and Wylan was surprised at how tidy the whole process was, considering Jesper was kind of a human tornado most of the time. He also made note of the fact that this was the same spatula that had just been in Nina’s mouth, but in the next instant decided he didn’t even mind. 

“Ok, everybody eat!” Nina yelled, as she forked the last two waffles out of the irons and onto the plate. There was a flurry of movement as everyone went for the stack of plates on one end of the island. Wylan hung back until he was sure he wouldn’t be trampled, and then fell into line behind Matthias. He watched Jesper sandwich a generous layer of sauce and butter between two waffles before covering the whole thing with whipped cream. Jesper paused to pat his pants pockets and made a face.

“Shit, I forgot to bring Lactaid,” he said.

“Upstairs medicine cabinet,” Nina said, and Jesper bounded out of the room with his plate in hand.

Wylan decided Jesper’s lactose intolerance was entirely more adorable than it had any right to be.

“The thing you have to understand is that you’re about to have your life ruined.” 

Wylan started. Matthias had turned around and was looking at him seriously, and Wylan’s heart skipped a beat. _How did he know?_

“Nina’s waffles are hands tied the best waffles you’ll ever eat, which means it’s all downhill from here,” Matthias continued, and Wylan let out a breath. _Oh._

“It’s hands _down_ , babe,” Nina said, laughing. “Hands tied is a whole other thing.” She slipped her arm around Matthias’ waist and gave him a look that Wylan got the distinct impression he was not supposed to be witnessing, and he blushed in spite of himself. Nina caught it and laughed again.

“Sorry, Wy--I keep forgetting you’re new,” she said, then tsked at Kaz and Matthias. “You should have let him go first!”

Kaz shrugged. “Wouldn’t want to set the bar too high on the politeness meter. We need his expectations to stay at an appropriate level.” His voice sounded rough as usual but his mouth quirked. 

Nina shook her head. “Hopeless. Wylan, let me know if you need anything other than what’s here. Or just help yourself, it’s basically a free-for-all around here.” 

Wylan debated taking two waffles like Kaz had (Matthias took three, which was definitely out of the question), but he decided to start with just one. They took up almost the whole plate anyway, and by the time he had finished adding toppings it was a hefty meal. He trailed after the others out of the kitchen, trying not to ogle everything along the way. 

Nina’s house was almost as big as the house Wylan grew up in, but could not have been more different. Wylan had spent his childhood being reminded not to make messes, or put his feet on the furniture, and to make sure to always use a coaster if he was going to set his glass down on one of the glass-topped tables in either the living room or the dining room ( _who even thinks a glass-topped dining table is a good idea?_ Wylan wondered every time he ate there). Much like he himself, Jan van Eck’s taste in decor was expensive, but minimalist and certainly not warm or child-friendly. 

Nina’s parents’ place, on the other hand, was fairly bursting with colors and pieces which were clearly collectors’ items, but so wildly eclectic that they gave the house an air of festivity rather than the sterile museum-like quality Wylan was used to. It was clear they were well-traveled, and although Wylan's heart went out to Nina when he thought of how often she had been left alone while her parents were off gallivanting, he was smitten with their taste.

The group made their way down some stairs and into what turned out to be the most fantastic den Wylan had ever seen. Based on how it was decorated and the general chaos of it, it was pretty clear that this was Nina’s realm. There was a huge TV on one wall with curtains draped theatrically around it, and the rest of the walls were covered in colorfully framed posters of high school and regional theater productions, bands, and old pulp novel covers with titles like “SATAN WAS A LESBIAN” and “NYMPHO LIBRARIAN.” The enormous, comfy-looking couch and armchair were matching hot pink leopard-print, and numerous body and throw pillows were strewn around the coffee table, which held a stack of books, a deck of tarot cards, and a metallic silver decorative skull. Against the wall opposite the TV was a full-on fainting couch--also leopard print--and some overflowing plastic bins of what appeared to be costumes and props, as well as a camera on a tripod.

“Wow,” Wylan couldn’t help but say it out loud. 

Inej smiled at him. “Welcome to Nina’s lair,” she said. “Come sit.”

Everyone settled down on or around the couch so they could set their plates on the ample coffee table. Wylan chose a spot on the floor and was just trying not to overthink the fact that maybe he was a little too awkwardly far away from everyone, when Jesper made a comically Kramer-like entrance and plopped down on the pillow next to him. 

“Ok, first things first,” Jesper said to Wylan. “Have you experienced the waffles yet?” 

Wylan shook his head as he started cutting into his pile, and Jesper said a small thank-you to the patron saint of seating arrangements that Wylan had chosen this spot. He had admittedly taken a little longer than he normally would have in the bathroom, after he’d chomped down four Lactaid tablets--because somehow he had only just noticed that his hair was weird today. After a few minutes of fussing at it, he realized that the early bird (himself) was not going to get the worm (a strategic spot next to Wylan) if he didn’t hurry it the hell up, and he almost toppled down the stairs trying to make up for lost time.

Next to him, Wylan took his first forkful and made an appreciative noise.

“Holy wow,” he said around the bite. “These are amazing!”

“Told you,” Matthias said from the couch. “She’s a life-ruiner.”

“She ruins peoples’ lives!” Nina, Jesper, and Inej said at the same time, and everyone burst out laughing.

There was a short pause filled with chewing noises as everyone eagerly tucked in, until Nina broke the silence (Wylan was beginning to learn that it was generally Nina or Jesper who broke the silences).

“Wylan, can I read your tarot when we're finished?” she asked. Jesper started nodding enthusiastically and Matthias looked disgruntled.

Wylan hesitated and Jesper used it as an excuse to nudge him with his elbow. 

“She’s really good,” Jesper said, noting Wylan’s faint blush and telling himself it had nothing to do with the nudge. “We all get readings occasionally. Except Matthias, because he low key hates it so he just doesn’t.” Matthias huffed and rolled his eyes, mumbling something that sounded like “bunk” around his mouthful of waffle.

“Yeah, sure,” Wylan shrugged. “Do I have to have a specific question?”

“Only if you want to,” Nina said. “But not a yes or no question, those aren’t really kosher or answerable. It’s more like if you have a situation or person in mind you want to know more about--” Wylan forced himself _not_ to look at Jesper as Nina continued “--then the cards will give you insight into it, or I can just do a general reading, whatever you want.”

“Okay,” Wylan said. “I’m down.” He’d never gotten a tarot reading before and he was absolutely sure his father would have dismissed it as frivolous, which meant he was prepared to love it.

Even with Matthias, Nina, and Jesper getting seconds, everyone finished their waffles in what seemed to Wylan to be record time (but was actually just normal for the Dregs). Once the plates had been cleared and everyone else had dispersed around the room to do homework, Nina settled herself on the floor across from Wylan and made space on the coffee table. Jesper thought he should probably do some homework too, but he was itching to hear the reading--Wylan looked nervous and kept scrunching up the front of his hair with one hand, which was extremely cute. In the end, Jesper compromised by stretching out on the couch behind Nina so he could watch under the guise of reading his English assignment.

Nina shuffled the deck a few times and handed it over to Wylan. 

“Shuffle while you keep your question in mind, or if you just want a general reading, think about that. Then cut the deck,” she instructed. 

Wylan took the deck and executed four casually perfect shuffles, much to Jesper’s surprise. He really didn’t want to admit it, but seeing someone handle a deck of cards that way got his blood going. _You’ve made it year and a half_. _Don’t screw it up,_ he told himself as he focused instead on Wylan’s slim, skillful fingers and all the things they implied. That didn't really bring his blood down at all but it was an effective distraction.

Once Nina had the cards back in her hands, it was easier for Jesper not to think about them as cards but as symbols instead, and he breathed a little easier. Nina dealt out a few in the spread she used most often that Jesper could never remember the name of.

Wylan wrapped his arms around his knees and propped his chin on them while he watched Nina muse over the cards. She looked mystical and majestic somehow, and he found himself getting surprisingly nervous.

He had asked about Jesper, of course. 

Well, Jesper _and_ the upcoming school year, but really the school year question was just a half-assed attempt to... _what?_ he thought. _Trick the cards into thinking_ _I’m not insanely crushing out on the person lying across from me at this exact moment?_ He did realize how ridiculous that was on quite a few levels, but he tried to ignore it and stay open-minded for whatever Nina--or ok, the cards--had in store for him. He was also telling himself not to read too much into the fact that, out of all the other open spots around the den, Jesper had chosen this one.

“Ok,” Nina said. “Wow, yes.” Jesper gave up on trying to pretend he was reading and turned his head towards them.

“You are in for some _things_ , let me tell you,” Nina continued. “It’s looking like you were wondering about things within the upcoming year, right?” 

Wylan nodded, still looking at the spread. The cards were beautifully illustrated, which he appreciated, but he was also extremely off-put to see that one of them featured a menacing-looking grim reaper next to a tipped-over hourglass--as well as extremely enticed by one that showed two naked people gazing adoringly at each other, arms entwined. He wanted to ask a million questions, but not while Jesper was listening. Even if he hadn’t been, Wylan figured anything he asked in regards to Jesper would be plenty transparent to Nina anyway.

“Yeah, it’s a real roller coaster.” She put her hand over the card with the grim reaper. “So let me tell you right away since you’re new to tarot and I can totally tell you’re freaking out about the fact that the Death card came up--there are no ‘bad’ tarot cards. Depending on their position, cards can indicate shitty energy, big uncomfortable changes, unfortunate circumstances, stuff like that, but individually the cards don’t have a bad prediction like... _assigned_ to them or anything, does that make sense?”

Wylan nodded again, feeling relieved. He glanced up at Jesper, who gave him a reassuring half-smile. 

Nina tapped her fingers on the Death card. “So nine times out of ten the Death card is metaphorical; in this case it’s indicating that some piece of your previous life needs to be put to rest. Over here in your immediate personal life there’s a lot of tension going on--but it’s also going to be umm...what’s the word I want...fulfilling, I guess? Like it’s stressful but you’ll also get a lot of benefit out of it, if that makes sense. And now the _other_ one I’m sure you’re dying to know about--” Nina waggled her eyebrows at him and Wylan flushed a more noticeable pink this time, which did not escape Jesper-- “is the Lovers card. It’s really positive here and indicates that there’s some kind of fun tryst happening. But there’s going to be a lot of push and pull around it--these two cards here are kind of giving me the impression that this person is a surprise that you didn’t see coming and also challenges you to be more spontaneous.” 

Nina paused with a frown and leaned forward. “Wait, what’s your zodiac sign?”

Wylan had no idea what this had to do with anything but it seemed like a reasonable question, all things considered. “Virgo,” he said. And then, because he couldn’t help it: “Why?”

“Ok yeah, that makes sense," Nina nodded. Then her eyes lit up. " _Wait_ , when’s your birthday?” 

“Umm September sixteenth.”

“ _Ohmygod_ that’s next week! We have to celebrate!” Nina looked like she was ready to throw him a party on the spot. “GUYS, it’s Wylan’s birthday next week!” she yelled back towards the other three. 

Given who they were, the reaction was very quiet. Matthias put his fist up in a “hell yes” gesture, Inej clapped her hands and grinned, and Kaz just nodded like he’d known all along. Which Wylan wasn’t entirely sure he hadn’t, now that he’d had some insight into the bear trap that was Kaz’s brain.

Jesper, on the other hand, was making no attempt to hide his excitement. He lived for parties, especially if it was celebrating someone he liked. His first thought was _I could be a really great birthday wish_ and then _Wow Jes, you’re a walking cliché._

He grinned at Wylan. “In case you can’t tell, Nina _loves_ birthdays,” he said. “Drives Kaz totally bananas.”

“Ugh, that boy,” Nina said, rolling her eyes. “I can't wait to make him so miserable this year.” 

“Does he hate birthdays?” Wylan asked. It would not have surprised him in the least if this was true. 

“Just his own,” Nina said. “So obviously we--meaning mostly me--have to torture him every year with a whole surprise thing.” She raised her voice and directed it over her shoulder. “You know, _basic fun stuff_ that any _normal human being_ would feel _honored_ that his friends took the _time and effort to do for him every year_.” 

She turned back to Wylan. “Anywayyy, did you have birthday plans yet or…?”

“Basically, she wants to know if she can plan a surprise,” Jesper clarified. “But in case that scares you--”

“Which it should _,”_ Kaz interjected, just loud enough to be heard. 

“Salty bastard,” Nina retorted good-naturedly.

Jesper cleared his throat pointedly. “As I was sayingggg--in case that scares you, I’m here to personally assure you that no one has ever died from one of Nina’s surprises, and everyone always has at _least_ a 17% chance of having fun.” He threw a cheeky grin at Nina and yelped as she whapped him with a throw pillow.

Wylan laughed. “17% chance, huh? Wow, how can I say no?” No one had ever thrown him a surprise party before.

Jesper held his long arm out towards Wylan and put his palm up for a mid-five. “Hell yes, welcome to the birthday club.” It took Wylan a second to understand what was being asked for, but then he leaned forward and slapped his hand against Jesper’s. It was not a natural move for him and Jesper’s smile widened as he tried not to laugh at how endearingly awkward the gesture looked coming from Wylan.

“Ok, we can talk birthday later,” Nina said. “Let’s get back to this reading. What was I saying?”

“Ummm,” Wylan’s palm had a pleasant tingle where it had touched Jesper’s and it felt entirely beyond his capabilities at the moment to remind Nina that she had been talking about his purported mystery lover. Just the idea of saying the word “lover” with Jesper mere feet away gave him so many qualms he wanted to jump out a window.

Jesper, on the other hand, had been born practically qualm-free.

Plus Kaz couldn’t see from his spot behind them, so what the hell. 

“Lovers’ tryst,” Jesper said, and made a calculated choice to look directly at Wylan as he said it. 

Wylan made a valiant effort not to look up at Jesper, and failed. _Days without blush incident: zero_ , Jesper thought with a smirk.

The way Wylan tore his eyes away and looked down as he caught his bottom lip in his teeth was a million times better than any boldly suggestive look Jesper had ever gotten. _Jesus fucking christ, this kid is going to kill me,_ he thought.

If Nina noticed that Wylan had grown several shades brighter, she kept it to herself. “Right right,” she said breezily, as if the air between the two boys wasn’t threatening to ignite. Wylan forced his face into something he hoped resembled casual and looked to where Nina was gesturing to the cards.

“So you’re going to have some kind of romance, I already said that. And also this is a great time to learn new things within the creative realm; music or art or whatever. There’s a lot of like, fiery motivational energy with this Ace of Wands.” Nina paused and looked at Wylan again. “Wait, what instrument do you play? I can’t believe I don't know that.”

“Flute,” Jesper said, before Wylan could answer. “Or as they call it where I’m from, ‘the ole silver stick.’”

Nina rolled her eyes exaggeratedly. “Biiiitch you’re from _here_.”

“Yeah, and we call it the ole silver stick,” Jesper said. “You know--laying down some long and skinny tunes. Don’t be mad that you’re not cultured enough to know all the names for the flu--aaagh!” He collapsed in a flail of limbs as Nina reached back, pulled him off the couch, and started tickling him ruthlessly. 

This reminded him so much of himself and Kuwei that Wylan started laughing and couldn't stop; he couldn’t remember the last time he’d felt so punchy and elated. Nina and Jesper's goofy joy was infectious.

Jesper was flopping around giggling helplessly, caught up in a happy bubble of his own, riding high on the charge he got every time Wylan made eye contact between bouts of belly laughs.

As they wound down, Inej silently launched herself over the back of the couch and lay down where Jesper had been.

“Kaz wants to do face masks,” she announced, just as Kaz appeared behind the couch. He looked down at Inej with a surprisingly soft half-smile.

“Is that what I want?” Kaz asked. “Huh. And here I thought I just wanted to be filthy rich and rule the city.”

Inej laughed. “You can have all three things, love.”

“Yeah, don’t be afraid to dream big, you know?” Jesper said from where he was being held captive under Nina’s armpit. He turned his face towards Wylan. “What do you say, Goldilocks? Face mask?”

Wylan shrugged bonelessly and grinned. “Yeah sure,” he said. “What the heck.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Whew, this one took a while and got long, but they JUST KEPT TALKING. I'm kind of trying to figure out how to handle a couple points with upcoming chapters so it might be a minute before the next update but I'll do my best!


	10. Wylan's Birthday

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wylan's surprise birthday is off to a good start.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Big apologies that this took for freaking ever to update! I got sucked into the vortex of my SnowBaz fic :-/  
> Anyway I'm back on this one and have some fun things planned. 
> 
> Also I do realize this chapter is a bit slow, I'm getting back into the swing of it and I promise more cute Wesper moments in the next one.

For Wylan, the week and change leading up to his birthday was a wild ride. That Friday at lunch, Nina had taken out her notebook and started asking Wylan a bunch of questions. 

“Don’t read into any of these, because some of them may or may not be decoys,” she said with a wink. “First question: are you into monster trucks?”

Wylan laughed. “Not so much. Please tell me that’s one of the decoy questions.”

“Mmmm,” Nina said noncommittally. “Next question: are you afraid of heights?”

“In what way?”

“Like if we made you go bungee jumping,” Jesper interjected, and laughed when Wylan looked horrified. “Oh good lord, we’d never do that. Unless you asked.”

Wylan threw up his hands. “Well I don’t know these things! You’re all different kinds of crazy.”

Kaz actually smiled at that. “Yeah but it’s Nina organizing this, not me. There won’t be any non-consensual bungee jumping.”

Wylan sighed.

“Ok moving on,” Nina said. “What’s your favorite kind of cake?”

“Ummm…” he hesitated. His top favorite was a no-brainer but he was reluctant to say the name.

“Umm like you don’t know or umm like it’s weird and you’re afraid to say it?” Inej asked, astute as always.

“It’s not a weird flavor or anything,” Wylan said. “Just...not a popular choice with my dad, because it “sounds gay.” It’s um...Princess Cake?” He waited for a round of snickers but they didn’t come. Nina even clapped her hands together.

“Oh _I_ know Princess Cake!” she said excitedly. “Assuming you’re talking about the one that has creme patisserie and marzipan and not, like, a Disney thing?”

“No, I meant a literal Cinderella cake,” Wylan said, deadpan. There was a brief silence filled with raised eyebrows. “I’m _kidding,_ ” he said, and felt his face heat up when the table erupted in laughter.

Jesper caught Wylan’s eye and grinned, dimple flaring. He enjoyed getting the absolute most out of Wylan’s blushes, and had discovered that once they got going, it was easy to keep piling on things that made the other boy’s cheeks redder and redder. This time was no exception. Not for the first time, Jesper found himself wondering whether kissing Wylan would cause him to go up in flames or if the blushes would eventually reach a threshold.

He had to be careful when Kaz was around. No overly flirtatious banter, and no winks if Kaz was within eyeshot; this one had been risky but felt worth it. He felt bad about playing it so hot and cold—games weren’t his style (at least not the romantic kind). If he could have told Wylan the truth— _hey, I think you’re the cutest but Kaz is a high key control freak and I don’t want either of us to risk his wrath or losing his friendship—_ it would have made everything much simpler. But he also wasn’t sure if being upfront about it would make Wylan uncomfortable, and for some reason, stating it out loud gave it a weight that he wasn’t sure either of them was prepared for. 

The bottom line was, Jesper just wasn’t used to having to think so hard about how to manage a crush. Under normal circumstances, flirting had a natural progression that allowed for discovery and the ebb and flow that came with getting to know someone for the first time. There was room to back off if things went sideways. When everything was fraught with secrecy it took on a whole different flavor--one that he had to admit he didn’t always mind the taste of, but for the most part it was damn inconvenient.

Jesper tuned back in to find that Nina was still asking questions. The rest of them ranged from average to absurd, and by the end of it, Wylan could no longer tell which were decoys. The rest of the Dregs weren’t any help—occasionally one of them would chime in after one of the stranger questions with a story relating to it, which gave Wylan the impression that Dregs birthdays were a wild and uncharted territory that he might never begin to understand.

Finally Nina sat back and closed her notebook. “Okay, I think that’s a very good start.”

“Oh just a start?” Matthias said archly. “You’ve never put this much planning into _my_ birthday.”

“He’s new,” Nina said breezily. “And let me remind you that you get _a lot_ of other kinds of birthday perks from me that Wylan will never ever get, for reasons.” She kissed Matthias on the cheek as his expression turned a comical mix of happy and embarrassed.

Wylan knew that feeling well. Jesper more or less turned his attentions off whenever Kaz was around, and Wylan still didn’t know if that was normal or not. He’d seen enough to know that flirting was kind of Jesper’s baseline, and that was fine. He just wished it was consistent one way or another. Sometimes he got the feeling that it would never progress past smiles and cute eyebrows—in Wylan’s opinion, he wasn’t Jesper’s type anyway. He’d had the thought on more than one occasion that maybe the flirting was just a way to pass the time, appealing only because it was also risky. 

He’d talked about the whole thing ad nauseum with Kuwei, and they’d agreed that since it was fun and seemed harmless, there was no reason to overthink it. Or overthink it _more_ ; Wylan knew himself too well to try to pretend he wasn’t going to worry about it just a little.

Kuwei had been outrageously excited about Wylan’s surprise birthday. He and Wylan had given each other surprise gifts over the years, but never a full on party--it had always seemed unnecessary given that it was just the two of them. Wylan had wanted Kuwei to come, but Kuwei had a regional chess tournament he had to go to if he wanted to hold his ranking. Nina, however, had refused to let him miss out on the activities entirely. 

“This is a two-part surprise,” she said. “So Kuwei can join for the evening portion. Give me his contact, I’ll set everything up.” 

**_So about Nina_** , Kuwei texted Wylan that night. **_I’m kinda obsessed with her_** _._ Then **_Don’t tell her I said that._ **

**_Haha me too_** _,_ Wylan voice-texted back. 

He was nervous for everyone to meet. Kuwei knew him better than anyone, and Wylan knew that if there was even a hint of bullshit from the Dregs, Kuwei would be quick to see it and tell Wylan just what he thought. Wylan just wanted everyone to like each other, and he was pretty sure there wouldn’t be any problems but it was a lot to think about. Jesper and Kaz especially posed very different but equally as stress-worthy challenges. 

“He’s not _mean_ , he’s just standoffish and kind of a control freak and has a really intense voice,” Wylan said. He let his head hang off his bed so he could look at his room upside down. 

“You’ve said some variation of that like seventeen times,” Kuwei said from the other end of the phone. “It’s going to be fine. If Kaz is a dick to me I’ll just hang out with Nina because she’s obviously already my favorite, or I can go tell Jesper he needs to make out with you already.”

Wylan groaned. “ _Please_ don’t even joke about that. I’m already having anxiety about you two being in the same room together. Also we still don’t know if he actually likes me. Also it doesn’t matter because we can’t do anything because--”

“I know, I know. Kaz is kind of a control freak.” Kuwei interrupted. “You really need to go to sleep. It’s 2am and you’re getting picked up in seven hours.”

It took Wylan at least another hour to wind down and fall asleep; he still had no idea what the gang had planned for him. At this point he was pretty sure it wasn’t actually monster trucks, but he wasn’t putting it past them to do something completely weird and still make it the most fun he’d ever had.

Inej rang his bell at 9am on the dot. 

“Did your doorbell just play the Star Wars theme song?” she asked. “I made chai,” she added, handing him a cup. The steam rising from it smelled wonderful.

Wylan laughed. “Ummm yeah. I was kind of anxious when I first moved and I spent a lot of time messing around with stuff to try to distract myself. So I programmed the doorbell.” He sipped his chai. “Holy shit, this is delicious.” 

Inej inclined her head gracefully. “Thank you! It’s been handed down through my family for exactly one generation.” She grinned at Wylan’s puzzled look. “I found the recipe online. Your place is so cute, by the way.”

“Thanks,” Wylan shrugged, still not entirely comfortable with compliments even when they weren’t directly about him. “I’m ready to go whenever.” He grabbed his backpack off the kitchen table where it had been waiting, pre-packed, since the night before--birthday instructions had stated that he should bring his swim trunks and a change of clothes “just in case”. 

As they descended the three flights of stairs in the silence of 9am on a Saturday, it was even more apparent just how softly Inej moved. Wylan strained his ears but even when he kept his eyes on her feet to see when they fell, he couldn’t hear a sound. 

“How do you _do_ that?” he finally asked.

“Tons of practice and a little necessity,” Inej said. She headed for an old VW Bug parked out front. It was pristine and painted such a dark purple that it looked almost black. “It was just...easier to be quiet when I was a kid, and then eventually I took it to the next level. Gymnastics and...stuff.”

Wylan didn’t know exactly what she meant by “and stuff,” or what to say to the rest of it. He knew all the Dregs had some kind of parent problems--Kaz had said something to that effect when they first met. But he hadn’t felt comfortable prying about anything, and besides, there wasn’t much opportunity to since he hardly ever got one-on-one time with any of them.

Luckily Inej skated right over his silence without skipping a beat. “So the drive is about thirty minutes if you want to doze a little.”

“That’s ok,” Wylan said. “I’m too excited to sleep. Plus I want to see if I can get any clues based on what direction we’re going.”

Inej laughed. “You’ll never guess.”

She was right. They headed out of the city and then out of the suburbs, and by the time they were driving past open countryside, Wylan was utterly stumped. Almost exactly thirty minutes later, Inej turned off onto a narrow paved road with a sign that said Stork Lane. From there, there was a dirt driveway framed by two wagon wheels, with a cheerfully painted mailbox at the end with the name FAHEY in block letters. Wylan’s heart skipped a beat as he glanced at Inej, who was smiling again.

“Welcome to Jesper’s dad’s farm,” she said. “But that’s all I’m allowed to say for now.”

They were greeted by the other four Dregs standing in the yard of Jesper’s house, and Wylan was immediately overwhelmed. It was just hitting him what “surprise birthday party” actually meant--he was going to go this whole day without knowing in advance a single thing that was going to happen to him, all while being the center of attention. He took a deep breath and stepped out of the car.

Everyone whooped as they made their way over, except Kaz, who raised his cane in a kind of salute.

“We decided not to sing happy birthday this time because it always comes out too slow and weird!” Jesper grinned. 

“Even though Nina really wanted to,” Inej added. She leaned up and kissed Kaz lightly on the cheek. “Hello, love.” Kaz closed his eyes and just for just a split second looked soft.

“You shut your pretty, blasphemous mouth,” Nina said. “Matthias loves my singing, don’t you babe?”

“Happy birthday, Wylan!” Matthias said heartily, and Nina rolled her eyes and punched him in the arm. 

Wylan let them shepherd him inside, where he was met with the blissful scent of breakfast. From the foyer he was escorted into the dining room, where Jesper broke off to go to the kitchen and get his dad. 

Colm Fahey loved the Dregs and had been enthusiastic about having a birthday party on the property. Jesper’s mom’s death had been hard on both of them, and Colm was eternally grateful that the Dregs had been around to help Jesper through it. In turn, he had become everyone’s unofficial and occasional adoptive father. He handed Jesper a jar of maple syrup and clapped one huge hand on his shoulder.

“Wish I could stick around for it, Jes,” he said. 

“You’ve said that about a hundred times, Da,” Jesper grinned. “Come meet Wylan and take a waffle for the road.”

They returned to the dining room, where the table was laid out with an enormous breakfast spread. There were mini-quiches, waffles with all the toppings, bacon, bagels and lox, blueberry muffins, and what looked like fresh orange juice. Wylan’s mouth began to water and Nina clapped her hands.

“Okay, this is surprise number one, and now we’re going to tell you all about today.”

“Hey, don’t start without me!” Jesper exclaimed. “Also, dad wanted to say hi-bye. Wylan, this is my dad, dad this is Wylan.”

“Nice to meet you, Mr. Fahey,” Wylan said. It felt like an awkwardly long distance to go just to shake hands, so he gave a little wave instead.

“You too, son. And happy birthday,” Colm said. “I wish I could stay but I have a conference all weekend so I’ll be out of your hair.” He turned to Jesper and took on a serious expression. “Don’t blow the place up.” 

Jesper rolled his eyes. “That was _one time_ , Da. And I was six.”

“You’ll always be six to me,” Colm said, ruffling Jesper’s hair. Jesper grinned and ducked out of it and Wylan felt his heart get tight. It was clear how much the two of them loved each other. 

As soon as Colm left, there was a mad dash to the breakfast table. Jesper brought out hot coffee and tea and everyone tucked in with enthusiasm. Wylan didn’t think he would ever get used to how delicious Nina’s waffles were, but part of his brain was still nervously going over possibilities for the day. 

After a few minutes of wordless silence filled with chewing sounds and the rattle of cutlery, Kaz startled them all by breaking the silence. “Nina, would you like to do the honors?” 

Nina set down her coffee and grinned. “I would love to.” She turned to Wylan and clasped her hands in front of her expectantly. “Wylan my love, we the Dregs have planned for you a birthday of magnificent heights. On the roster for today is--”

“Wait!” Jesper interrupted. “Are we _sure_ we want to tell him in advance? Isn’t the whole point of a surprise party to make everything a surprise?”

“Yes, but he has to know _something_ ,” Inej said. She was sitting across from Wylan and had been watching him quietly deal with his anxiety over not knowing what was going on.

“We agreed that we were going to do an overview,” Kaz said. “You were there.”

“Was I though?” Jesper grumbled. He suddenly realized he was feeling a lot more nervous than he’d anticipated, and it was coming out in weird ways. Everything was happening on his turf and he wanted it to be great; Wylan of all people deserved the happiest birthday, and Jesper wanted more than anything for everything to go smoothly.

Nina blew out her cheeks. “Jesper, _chill_. Let me talk.” Jesper put his hands up in surrender before attacking his breakfast again, and Nina continued. “We the dregs have prepared for you a birthday of magnificent heights. We decided that since you probably never had a normal childhood--”

“I thought you said you were going to say it more tactfully than that,” Matthias said quietly.

“It’s non-judgemental. We all had fucked-up childhoods,” Kaz rasped. 

Nina closed her eyes and looked like she was sending fervent prayers to the gods of patience. She opened her eyes and looked around the table. “May I continue?”

Kaz waved his arm magnanimously. “You may.”

“Thank you. Wylan, as our fearless leader Kaz has pointed out, we all had fucked-up childhoods. But once we made friends with Jesper, at least we all had the farm as a getaway if we wanted to do stuff outside of the city. So today, we’re taking you on a belated Dregs adventure on the Fahey farm. Now, would you like to know specifics of what that includes, or do you want each thing to be a surprise?”

Wylan felt like he might never stop smiling. “Umm...is it okay if I know specifics?”

“Aagh damn!” Jesper exclaimed, then looked contrite when Wylan looked at him. “Sorry, I don’t mean _damn_ like that sucks, but damn like--ok can we at least keep that _one thing_ , that super cute one thing a surprise? Because who wouldn’t want to be surprised by--” he broke off and turned to whisper something in Inej’s ear.

Inej grinned. “Yes ok, actually I agree with you on that one. Wylan, can you close your eyes so I can mouth something real quick?”

Utterly confused, Wylan obliged. There was a moment of silence and then Nina said, “Ok you can open!” She cleared her throat. “Jesper makes a good point and unless you object, then we’re all in agreement that this _one thing_ needs to be kept a total surprise. It’s literally the least traumatizing thing you’ll ever see, I promise.”

“Ok,” Wylan said.

“Great.” She took out her phone and opened her notes. “So ok, what we have on the list today is: pet all the farm animals, ride motorcycles--well, it’s just the one motorcycle, but we all take turns--have Jesper teach you how to shoot, do that super secret cute thing that’s a surprise, dip in the creek, and have a picnic lunch. And probably pass out after lunch because there is _so much food_. And also, Jesper grows pot behind the chicken coop, so. That’s an option.” She gestured theatrically. “How does that sound?” 

Everyone looked at him expectantly and Wylan felt like his whole body might be blushing. He hadn’t been able to form any expectations about the day, but this far exceeded anything he could have imagined. Jesper watched him closely and was not disappointed at the reaction. 

Wylan grinned even wider and ducked his head. “That all sounds amazing,” he said, then added, “And also I’ve never done any of those things.”

Everyone cheered and Jesper grinned at him across the table. “I can’t wait to teach you how to shoot.”

“ _I_ can’t wait to take selfies on the motorcycle. My hair was different last time,” Nina said.

“Oooh we can practice our spy move!” Inej exclaimed.

“Who wants to bet that Wylan is a natural shot?” Jesper asked the table, raising his hand. 

Nina put hers up and then put it back down. “Just to keep things interesting,” she winked at Wylan. 

Matthias put his hand up and gave Nina a half smile. “Just to keep things interesting.” 

Kaz and Inej kept their arms down, and when Wylan glanced at Inej, she smiled. “Take it as a compliment. You’re wholesome.”

Wylan shrugged. “I don’t think I’d bet on myself, either.” Then he realized something. “ _Can_ I bet on myself?” 

“No!” everyone said at the same time.

“The subject of the bet can’t legally join the pool,” Kaz said. “But you _can_ bet someone else that they’ll be wrong.”

Wylan wasn’t sure what had gotten into him, but he suddenly felt very bold. Before he could second guess himself, he looked at Jesper. “In that case, Jesper, I bet you’re wrong.”

Jesper let out a noise of surprise and Nina said “Oooooh” and waggled her fingers nefariously.

“You realize that means you’re literally betting against yourself, right?” Jesper asked. He was both confused and pleased with whatever this development was. Any excuse to for him and Wylan to have something outside of the group was appealing.

“ _You’re_ also betting against _yourself_ ,” Matthias pointed out. “There’s no way you can win both bets.”

That hadn’t been part of Wylan’s original plan, but he was glad for the added twist. He smiled at Jesper. “Are you going to take it or not?” Out of the corner of his eye, he could feel Kaz watching them with sharp eyes.

“Yeah, obviously!” Jesper said. “Because I’m a foolish man who can’t walk away from a challenge.” Before he could remember not to, he winked, and winced when Kaz cleared his throat. Wylan’s face went from a pleased pink to a guilty red and he suddenly became very interested in his orange juice.

“Is everyone done or do we want thirds?” Nina asked, somehow making the non sequitur sound like the most natural segway in the world. Jesper reminded himself to thank her later, and reminded himself (for what felt like the millionth time) to be more careful. _Stop letting him make you stupid,_ he thought. Small chance of that, though. The minute Wylan had gotten out of the car that morning, Jesper’s nerves had been on fire. He was looking forward to getting going on all the activities; he badly needed to let off some steam.

Everyone pushed back and started clearing the table, and a few minutes later everything was packed away in some of the many hodgepodge recycled containers that worked as tupperware in Jesper’s house.

Kaz checked his watch. “I have a couple business things to do. Start without me--I’ve already pet all the animals.” He walked off to the living room, cane thumping quietly on the hardwood floor.

“Inej, your boyfriend is weird,” Nina said affectionately.

Jesper was bouncing impatiently from foot to foot and looked like he was ready to pop.

“Let’s goooo!” he said. 

Inej put her hands on his shoulders. “Jesper. Take a breath.” 

Wylan watched as Jesper inhaled and found himself wishing--not for the first time--that the group dynamics would allow for him to casually touch Jesper and not have it feel like the sky was crashing down. He met Jesper’s eyes over Inej’s head and saw his own expression mirrored there: Kaz was out of the room. Jesper gave Wylan a slow smile that made Wylan's stomach flutter so hard he almost had to look away. But this was _his_ birthday, damn it.

He held Jesper’s gaze until Inej took her hands away. 


	11. Wylan's Birthday - Part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wylan's surprise birthday continues. The Dregs meet Kuwei. Everyone eats too much cake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CW: this chapter contains some nonviolent gun use. (Basically just an excuse for me to get Jesper into Wylan's space in a sexy instructional manner tbh).
> 
> There's also a brief convo about moms dying.

“I’m so mad at my dad,” Wylan said. “I mean even more than I was. I can’t believe he never let me pet a horse nose.” 

Matthias looked more content than Wylan had ever seen him as he stroked a huge hand down the horse’s neck. “Bonds between animals and humans are important,” he said. “I was so happy the first time we all came out here. It was the first time I had gotten to be close to animals since I moved to Ketterdam.”

“Matthias absolutely lost his shit,” Nina said to Wylan. “It was so cute. Then we accidentally got him too high and he just lay in the middle of Jesper’s yard with a kitten on his chest, saying ‘it’s so soft, it’s so soft’ over and over.”

Wylan laughed. “That sounds like something I would do.”

“We can definitely make that happen,” Jesper said, giving the horse a kiss on the nose. “I mean if you want. Kaz and I have a um...side business selling to one of the dispensaries. Wait, do you smoke? We’ve never actually talked about that.” 

“Sometimes,” Wylan shrugged. “Not in public because it makes me anxious. Kuwei grows it though, so we usually just smoke on my roof.” 

“That sounds great, though,” Jesper said, as his mind naturally wandered to what it would be like to lie next to Wylan on a rooftop. It was a nice thought. 

“Jesper, I want to snuggle a chicken,” Nina said.

Jesper laughed. “Okay, weirdo. Wylan, if you will--our petting tour continues this way.”

They spent the next forty-five minutes indeed cuddling chickens (Wylan had had his doubts about the feasibility of that, but Nina proved him wrong), as well as chasing the barn cat (who wouldn’t allow anyone near him), and laughing at the antics of Jesper’s goat. The goat kind of reminded Wylan of Jesper, actually. Something about the way she skipped around and poked her little nose at everything and headbutted someone when she wanted attention. Finally, their circuit ended at the back of Jesper’s house. 

Jesper leapt up the steps and paused dramatically on the little porch, looking out over the rest of them. “Wylan: are you ready for the grand finale, the cutest thing, the  _ one _ thing that you’ve allowed us to actually surprise you with?” He was grinning from ear to ear. 

Wylan nodded and smiled. “Yes.”

Inej linked her arm through his and leaned against him. “You’re never going to want to leave.”

They all piled into the house behind Jesper, who led them to the laundry room at the back of the house. He went in first, cooing at something Wylan couldn’t see yet. 

“Hello mama,” Jesper said affectionately. “Awww yes, you’re such a good girl. Come on in, just--you know the drill. Don’t yell,” he called back to the others.

Wylan got to go in first--birthday privileges--but he stopped short just inside the door, his hands going to his mouth in surprise. It wasn’t a dream: Jesper was standing in front of him, grinning and holding a wriggling little potato of a puppy. 

“Oh,” Wylan said softly. He couldn’t think of anything else to say. There were half a dozen more pups tumbling around the floor near his feet while their mama watched, and he was totally overwhelmed.

“Aww, babies!” Nina squealed behind him, and everyone crowded in. They already seemed to know how to behave around the pups, and knelt down to scoop them up for cuddles. Wylan stood rooted to the spot. He’d never actually held a puppy before, or even had much contact with dogs at all. He also couldn’t look away from Jesper, who was still nuzzling and cooing at the little nugget in his hands. Jesper felt Wylan staring and looked up. 

“Well?” His dimple flashed. “Do you want to hold him?” Wylan looked like he was completely overwhelmed and Jesper was hoping it was in a good way. He had a feeling that Wylan’s upbringing hadn’t included much animal affection.

“I’ve never held a puppy,” Wylan said. He had a lump in his throat and he really hoped he wasn’t about to cry on this tiny dog.

“You’ve _never_ _held a puppy?”_ Nina said incredulously from the floor. She and Matthias were unabashedly stretched out full length on their stomachs, being attacked by furballs. “Oh my god, this is the best surprise ever and we didn’t even know it!”

“Here,” Jesper said, stepping towards Wylan. “Just hold him securely so he doesn’t fall. But they’re three weeks old, so it’s not like they’re crazy newborn fragile anymore.” 

He came close to place the puppy into Wylan’s arms and then stayed for a moment in Wylan’s bubble. Wylan’s wide-eyed joy about the pups was making Jesper feel some kind of way, and he didn’t want to move away. Jesper bent his head to nuzzle the soft little nose again, his hair brushing Wylan’s chin, long-fingered hands gently scratching the dog’s ears and touching Wylan’s chest in the process. Wylan briefly felt Jesper’s breath on his arm before he straightened up and gave him a soft, intimate smile Wylan hadn’t seen before. 

This was already the best birthday he’d ever had and it wasn’t even noon.

They spent an indeterminate amount of time with the puppies, until Jesper told them the pups needed mom time and reluctantly herded everyone out. Inej silently left to check on Kaz, and returned just as silently to let everyone know he was still working.

“We have a bunch of stuff coming up at the club,” she explained to Wylan. “He’ll probably be a while.” 

Wylan had deduced that Halloween and the time leading up to it was a busy time for the Crow Club, but he’d never been there, and if he was being perfectly honest he wasn’t entirely clear on just what “the club” entailed. He knew Kaz owned it--somehow. But he hadn’t gotten the chance to ask anyone how Kaz had managed to become a business owner at age seventeen, or what went down on said property. He made a mental note to ask Inej on their drive home.

Everyone wandered back outside by way of the kitchen, snagging leftover waffles on the way. It was perfectly sunny out, with fat clouds floating lazily overhead and the buzz of cicadas in the air. With a shout, Jesper declared it “perfect shooting weather” and dashed back inside, returning momentarily with a pair of holstered guns held carefully in his hands. 

Jesper led them to a stretch of field behind the cow barn and swept his arm at it dramatically. “Welcome to the shooting range.”

The field was empty except for a random scattering of wooden posts and flat targets, all bearing a number of bullet holes. 

“This is way less cute than puppies,” Wylan whispered to Inej as they watched Jesper set up a row of painted tin cans atop a long railing at the far end of the field. 

Inej smiled. “You don’t have to do it if you don’t want to. None of us are actually pro-gun, but I like target practice as a skill. And it’s really something watching Jesper shoot.”

“I’m going to hit three cans today,” Nina announced. “I need to beat my personal best.”

“Have you ever even hit a can at all?” Matthias wondered aloud. 

Nina looked affronted. “I  _ said _ it would be a personal best.” 

“Dream on,” Jesper said as he came bounding back. He had strapped on the gun holsters, which were hanging low on his hips and making him look...well. Kind of like Han Solo, Wylan thought. Maybe he was into shooting after all.

Jesper gave them all a stern review of gun safety and mechanics before anyone was allowed to touch one. Wylan was nervous and relinquished his birthday privilege of going first so he could hang back and watch everyone else.

Matthias and Inej were decent shots, but Nina managed to hit almost everything  _ except _ the cans she was aiming for. Finally she slipped the revolver back in Jesper’s holster and sighed. “Well, I tried.” 

“You were close,” Wylan offered encouragingly.

“No she wasn’t,” Jesper grinned. “Ready to see how it’s done?”

Inej wasn’t wrong. Jesper really was something. Wylan watched as Jesper drew one of the pistols and sighted; it was like a hush spread over Jesper’s whole body as he aimed, then a shot rang out and one of the cans at the far end of the field flew off the rail. Everyone cheered and Jesper proceeded to hit every one of the rest of the cans off the rail in neat succession.

“Told you he was good,” Inej said.

Jesper turned to Wylan, grinning. “Want to try?” He was overflowing with the sparkling energy he always felt when he was shooting and he needed to give some of it away. His enthusiasm was infectious and Wylan felt a little more confident as he stepped forward.

“Okay, so just the basics. You can aim for the closest target right there.” Jesper put one of the revolvers in Wylans hand and let him get used to the heft of it. It was heavier than Wylan had expected, and warm from Jesper’s hand. “You sight down the barrel like this--” Jesper lifted Wylan’s arm from behind and manipulated his hold until he was satisfied. He had to admit, the sight of Wylan with one of his guns was wildly distracting, not to mention the fact that Jesper was suddenly reminded of how amazing Wylan smelled. He forced himself to refocus. “Now you want to think about squeezing the trigger slowly rather than like, grabbing it in. And do it on your exhale. And it helps if you’re relaxed.” 

Wylan almost laughed at that. There was no way he was going to be able to relax with Jesper’s long arms practically circling him and the heat from his chest radiating onto Wylan’s back. He concentrated on the target, looked down the barrel, and squeezed as instructed.

The bang and simultaneous kick were so startling that he stumbled backwards, directly into Jesper. Without thinking, Jesper threw his arm around to steady Wylan and for a brief moment it felt like they were hugging.

The moment was broken by everyone else yelling and Wylan quickly stepped away. 

“Did I hit it?” His adrenaline was going hard and he felt giddy, only a small fraction of which was actually due to shooting.

“Not even close!” Matthias said, grinning and clapping him on the shoulder. “But no one does on their first try.”

“I mean,  _ I _ did,” Jesper said. 

“That’s because you’re a weirdo with a weird talent,” Nina said lovingly. “And the rest of us mortals can’t compete. Wylan, are you going to go again or do you want to see me and Inej do spy shit on the motorcycle?”

Jesper rolled his eyes. “ _ Now _ who are the weirdos with the weird talents?” he asked. “No one should be able to do a handstand on a moving bike.”

Wylan thought Jesper might be exaggerating but he was definitely more interested in seeing what Nina and Inej were going to do than he was in target practice. Jesper deposited his guns inside again while the rest of the group made their way to the garage where the motorcycle was parked. Matthias lifted the door open and Nina pointed off to where the driveway continued past the garage and meandered into the field and out of view.

“This goes out to one of the pastures so they can check on the cows,” she explained. “But we mostly use it for motorcycle stuff.”

Wylan knew even less about motorcycles than he did about guns, but he thought this one looked vintage. It was painted blue and white, with brown leather tassels hanging from the handlebars. It looked like something a rock star from the 1970s would ride.

“This was Jesper’s mom’s bike,” Inej said. “None of us ever got to meet her but apparently she was a badass. She was the one who taught Jesper how to shoot.”

Nina swung astride in a practiced motion and walked the motorcycle forward out of the garage; Jesper came jogging over just as she started it up with a throaty rumble. Wylan caught the look on Matthias’ face as he watched Nina and almost giggled. Matthias looked concerned but also extremely turned on, and Wylan didn’t blame him. Objectively, Nina looked  _ hot. _

“Now, obviously we aren’t on the road so we’re forgoing the helmets or gear, and you should  _ absolutely not ever try this at home _ ,” Nina said, turning to Wylan. 

“Not that you even could,” Jesper said. “Just wait.”

“Ready?” Nina asked Inej.

She nodded. “Ready.” And she took off at a run, down the driveway away from the garage.

Nina kicked the bike into gear, made a U-turn and rode past Inej, who had stopped a short distance down the drive and was waiting on the side. Wylan had no idea what was about to happen but he was fully invested in whatever it was.

Jesper was bouncing from foot to foot excitedly and even Matthias looked like he was ready to be impressed. They watched as Nina slowed a few dozen feet from Inej, made another U-turn and then stopped, shouting something. Inej gave a thumbs up, bouncing a little on the balls of her feet. Even from this distance, Wylan could tell she was grinning. Then Nina took off towards her, not too fast but definitely not slow enough for what Wylan now suspected might be about to happen. 

He looked from Jesper to Matthias. “Is she going to--?” 

“Just wait,” Jesper grinned, thumping him on the arm.

Inej took off at a full sprint back towards the garage as Nina approached. Just as the bike drew up alongside her she vaulted, landing like a cat on the passenger seat. She paused for a moment, gave Nina’s shoulder a light pat, and then lifted herself into a perfect handstand.

Wylan was floored. Beside him, Jesper and Matthias exploded into yells and applause. Inej held position until Nina slowed and pulled the bike to a stop near the boys, at which point she flipped gracefully off and landed without a sound.

“Oh my god!” Wylan felt like he’d witnessed a miracle.

“Told you!” Jesper was still smiling from ear to ear as he swung Inej around in a bear hug.

Nina flicked the kickstand down and dismounted almost directly into Matthias’ arms; their hug was nowhere near as platonic as Jesper and Inej’s. Matthias murmured something into her ear and Wylan was surprised to see her actually blush.

The joyful bubble was interrupted by the sound of a bell ringing. It sounded vaguely church-like and Wylan looked around in confusion.

“Does that mean lunch?” Nina asked, disengaging from Matthias’ arms.

“Kaz!” Inej and Jesper said at the same time.

“Jinx,” Jesper said quickly. “You owe me a waffle.” 

Nina backed the motorcycle into the garage, and everyone traipsed back to the house to find Kaz on the porch with his hand still holding the rope connected to the bell in question. It was bigger than a human head and fixed to a mount on the side of Jesper’s front porch. It had never occurred to Wylan that anyone would still have a farm bell and he felt the same urge to ring it that he did when his father used to take him to church. Kaz even looked oddly like a priest, standing there in his somber black clothes with his hand resting ceremoniously on his cane.

“Done with work, love?” Inej asked as she gave him a kiss on the cheek.

“For now.” Kaz leaned into her and touched her hand. 

“Ugh, get a room,” Nina said with exaggerated disgust as she walked past them. “Also move--we’re going swimming.”

Everyone dispersed to change into their swim clothes. Wylan hadn’t actually been swimming with anyone since he was a kid and felt a little self-conscious, but he reminded himself that he was among friends. Well, friends  _ and _ one lanky, maddeningly-dimpled person who he had been thinking nonstop about kissing since 9am. He was acutely aware of the minutes ticking down until the time he was going to be half-naked with Jesper, and he couldn’t decide if he was more terrified or elated.

They loaded food and towels into tote bags and set out. The creek was a bit of a walk, far enough to feel like they were well-removed from domesticity, but not far enough that it ever deterred them from going. The path they took let out onto a shallow... _ would we consider this a beach, or a shore? _ Wylan wondered. Upon brief reflection he decided it was definitely the creek equivalent of a beach--a flat, pebbly shore drenched in early afternoon sun and surrounded by scraggly trees of varying sizes. It abutted a wide place in the creek that made the perfect swimming hole.

Everyone dropped their bags with a whoop and started peeling off layers; even Kaz stripped down, much to Wylan’s surprise. Surprising no one, Jesper was down to his trunks in record time and the first one in the water. It was still just warm enough to be comfortable for everyone; Jesper occasionally came down for a winter dip whenever he was feeling too restless, but for anyone else the water wasn’t really swimmable past October.

“This feels amazing!” Jesper called, dunking his head and coming up with a splash.

He was watching Wylan, who was studiously ignoring Jesper’s bare chest. He took off his shirt and waded in behind Matthias and Nina, feeling very petite. 

The swimming hole was only about mouth high to Inej at its deepest point, which made it the perfect depth for water games. As soon as Wylan got in deep enough, Jesper dove under and tickled his knees. Wylan shrieked and crashed below the surface, trying to find Jesper to retaliate. He spotted a pair of thin brown legs and grabbed for them, realizing too late that they weren’t wearing trunks but a black bathing suit.  _ Not Jesper--Inej. _

Wylan resurfaced, embarrassed, only to find that his mistake had set off a full-on water fight. Nina was splashing at Kaz, who fought back ferociously but also looked like he might actually laugh, and Inej was latched onto Matthias like a koala bear with her hands over his eyes as Jesper tried to take his legs out from under him. 

Matthias finally dove under to try to shake Inej, and Jesper turned his attention to Wylan. The energy had shifted somehow and it felt like the creek might be an okay place for all bets to be off.

“Get ready, Goldilocks,” Jesper said brazenly. “Birthday privileges mean nothing in the water.” He moved towards the other boy like a shark. Wylan watched him coming with his long arms and his flashing dimple and his lean chest streaming water, and decided he wasn’t going to try all that hard to escape. 

Jesper hadn’t really thought that catching Wylan would pose much of a challenge, but it was even easier than he expected. Wylan paddled backwards and kept his eyes on Jesper as they moved towards the middle of the hole. Somehow Wylan looked even more endearingly innocent with this blatant challenge on his face, Jesper thought. He took in Wylan’s wet curls and pale shoulders already showing freckles from the brief time in the sun, and then Jesper was on him. 

Wylan shrieked again as Jesper dunked him, and then they were tussling, locked onto each other and gasping for breath each time they resurfaced. Jesper was startlingly warm even in the cool of the water, Wylan discovered, as he put his arms around Jesper’s waist to pull him off-balance. 

They were interrupted by Inej slicing up through the water next to them and tickling them both at the same time. They all burst above the surface, breathless and laughing. 

“Let’s eat--I’m famished!” Nina said from Matthias’ armpit, where she was being held in a headlock.

“Just when I’m winning, how convenient,” Matthias smiled.

Everyone dried off and took turns changing out of their swimsuits behind a dense copse of shrubbery off the path. Wylan said a brief prayer of thanks that he wouldn’t be subjected to the distracting V of Jesper’s hip bones during lunch. He was already having a hard enough time trying not to think about how the rest of Jesper’s body had felt against him in the water; he didn’t need a visual reminder. 

Blankets were spread and a mismatched array of silverware and plates doled out and then filled with an equally mismatched array of food. Lunch, it turned out, was a sort of cobbled-together potluck consisting of breakfast leftovers and whatever the gang had brought from home. As always, there was plenty to go around and everyone ate until they were stuffed.

“I don’t know why I love these so much,” Inej commented as she nibbled on a handful of original flavor Goldfish. 

“Because they’re classic and underrated, just like you,” Nina said, winking. Inej rolled her eyes and grinned.

“Are you trying to steal my girl?” Kaz asked lazily from where he was lying on Inej’s lap.

“Please! If I was actually trying with  _ any _ of you, no one here would stand a chance,” Nina scoffed.

“I can testify to that.” Matthias lay down and stretched out with his hands behind his head, and Nina scooted down and tucked her head onto his shoulder. 

There was a comfortable silence and then Wylan said shyly, “Thank you everyone for today.” 

“Thank you for being born,” Matthias said seriously.

“And thanks for hanging out with us,” Inej added. Everyone murmured their agreement and Wylan felt overwhelmed.

The afternoon sun was warm and it didn’t take long for a deep post-lunch torpor to settle in. The two sets of couples lay looking up at the clouds and dozing, and Wylan found himself watching them awkwardly. He wasn’t sure if he should try to nap also, and what kind of message that might send to Jesper if he did. For the first time since he’d started hanging out with everyone, it felt weird being the fifth and sixth wheel.

Jesper, on the other hand, was restless. Romping in the water hadn’t done much to burn off the fizzy, persistent energy he’d been feeling all day. He knew it was just a symptom of being close to Wylan, but he wanted to keep being close. He also wanted to go smoke a joint and dip his toes in the water, but he felt bad leaving Wylan alone, or what may as well have been alone given how responsive the other four were.

Finally, he cracked. “Hey,” he said softly, touching Wylan’s shoulder gently with a finger. “Do you want to take a walk?” 

Wylan nodded, relieved, even though he immediately got a nervous flutter in his stomach. He reminded himself that almost anything had to be better than them sitting here in awkward silence listening to Inej’s surprisingly loud snores. Jesper jumped up and took off away from the blankets, leading them onto another small path that headed upstream. 

When they’d gotten more or less out of earshot, Jesper broke the silence. “So, Goldilocks. How does this compare to previous birthdays?”

“It’s--” Wylan had too many adjectives bouncing around in his head. “It’s been amazing. Like seriously, probably the best birthday I’ve ever had. And definitely the weirdest.”

Jesper laughed. “What made it weird? Was it the chickens or the bananas motorcycle acrobatics?” He veered off the path towards a wide, flat rock on the shore. “This is my spot.”

He sat down and slipped off his shoes, hanging his legs over the edge of the rock. The shore was a little higher here, allowing room for their feet to dip into the water to about ankle depth. Wylan joined Jesper on the rock, and was surprised to find it pleasantly warm. 

Jesper took a joint from his pocket and held it up. “Would you like? I’m ping-ponging today, as my mom used to say. I need to chill out.”

Wylan felt like he’d earned this today, for a lot of reasons. Number one being he was seventeen, and if he wanted to smoke with his secret-but-possibly-not-that-secret crush on a sun-warmed rock next to a creek, then by god he deserved to do that. 

He nodded. “Sure.”

The pot smelled beautifully herby and Jesper blew smoke rings on his exhale. “Old Toby. Finest weed in Southfarthing.” He side-eyed Wylan to see what the reaction would be.

“Is that--did you just quote  _ Lord of the Rings _ ?” Wylan demanded incredulously. 

“What? You’re not the only nerd around here,” Jesper grinned, bumping his shoulder into Wylan’s. “I had some high-key sexual awakenings because of Viggo Mortensen.” 

Wylan snorted. “High-key, huh?”

“Yep. It was like...Aragorn, Han/Leia, and Spike/Fay Valentine. What about you?”

“What about me  _ what _ ?” Wylan stalled and took a delicate puff. It  _ was _ pretty great weed.

“Your awakenings. Like who did you first look at and think,  _ Wow I’m soooo gay _ .”

“Ummm…it was actually my fifth grade teacher, Mr. Hamburger.  _ Don’t _ laugh,” he said sternly, as Jesper’s eyes got wide and his face split into a grin. “His name was Mr. Hamburger, he wore these cute scarves that he’d take off before we did experiments, and he always helped me with my reading.”

“What was his favorite food?” Jesper said, struggling to keep a straight face.

“Oh shut up,” Wylan huffed. “You just basically admitted you’re the biggest nerd of all time.”

Jesper laughed. “Blame my mom. She started me on my road to nerd-dom.”

“What was she like?” Wylan asked, hoping it wasn’t too much. Jesper never talked about his mom at school and had only mentioned her in passing a couple other times when Wylan was around.

“She was a total firecracker,” Jesper said, his voice going soft. “She and my dad were kind of opposites, in a way. Sometimes it was intense. But she was so...I don’t know,  _ bright _ . And always  _ doing _ something, like hobbies and projects and stuff. She taught me to shoot, and cook, and ride a horse. And got me into nerd shit, of course.”

“She sounds really cool,” Wylan said quietly. 

“Yeah. I miss her.” Jesper’s voice caught a little and Wylan’s chest twisted. After a pause Jesper said, “What about your mom?”

Wylan shrugged. “She died when I was seven, in a car crash. I remember a few things really well and the rest is just kind of fuzzy. It was kind of a weird time. She and my dad fought constantly, so I hung out alone a lot and just listened to music and stuff. Then one day my dad sat me down and told me she had died, and that was kind of it.” 

“Shit,” Jesper said softly. “I’m really sorry.” He lay back on the rock and put his hands behind his head.

Wylan shrugged again. “It’s ok.” He paused to think about whether it really was ok. He still didn’t know. “I’m pretty much an orphan and that’s kinda weird to think about. But fine I guess? I’d rather have no parents than have to live with my dad.”

“Well you have us,” Jesper said. “That’s basically what we’re all together for--we’re each other’s parents and siblings at the same time. Oh hey!” He bolted upright and fished in his pocket. “I made something for you.” Jesper pulled out his phone and typed something, and a few seconds later Wylan felt his pocket buzz.

“Is it...a text message?” Wylan grinned.

Jesper rolled his eyes. “Look and find out.”

Wylan opened the message with trepidation. “A playlist?”

“Yup! It’s some really good dance tunes, and some like get-you-pumped-in-the-morning stuff, and then just some other stuff I think you’d like. I mean not that I actually  _ know _ what you like, aside from flute music,” Jesper added, suddenly uncertain now that he was saying it out loud. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, and now seemed much too intimate.  _ You make people playlists all the time _ , he reminded himself.  _ No need to make a big deal out of it. _

Except that Wylan was blushing furiously, so maybe it was a bit late for it to not be a big deal. “Thank you,” Wylan said, willing his face to go back to normal. “ And I like a lot of stuff other than flute music. What exactly do you think ‘flute music’ is, anyway?”

Jesper shrugged, dimpling. “I don’t know, Flute Skywalker--you tell me.”

Wylan groaned. “I thought I was Goldilocks.”

“You can be both. I’ve gone through like, fifty nicknames for all the Dregs.”

“You have? What are they?” 

“Ok ummm…” Jesper finished the joint and started ticking names off his fingers. “Inej was peanut, monkeybutt, Paul McCartwheel; Nina was Na-na, Nina-bean, el niño, buttface--I called her that for a few weeks after she said I had a fivehead one time; ummm Matthias was Matty, Matty-O, Yoga Matt, Jean-Claude van Daaaaamn son!--that one’s because he’s hella ripped, in case you didn’t notice. Also he hates it when you call him Matt, so those were always hilarious.” He paused. Wylan was laughing with his head back and his eyes scrunched shut, the sun making his skin practically glow with all his freckles popping in the sun. Jesper wanted to kiss him so badly he had to look away.

“What about Kaz?” Wylan asked through his giggles. 

“Oh no,” Jesper said ominously. “I can’t tell you any of those. You have to maintain  _ some _ plausible deniability.”

_ Speaking of Kaz... _ Wylan thought. Maybe this would be a good time to tell Jesper how he felt. He could preface it with a disclaimer that he understood they couldn’t actually do anything about it, but he just wanted to get it out in the open. But what if he said all of that only to hear that Jesper didn’t feel the same way? Sure, he’d given Wylan a cute (if somewhat annoying) nickname, but Jesper had basically just said himself that he did that for all his friends. Wylan decided to forget it. The risk of being wrong was too awkward to think about.

“Hey,” Jesper splashed him with his foot. “Whatcha thinking about?”

Wylan shook his head to clear it. “Nothing, just spaced out. I’m--” he realized this suddenly “--really high.” He giggled and poked Jesper in the shoulder. “Boop.”

“Did you just boop me?” Jesper looked so comically incredulous that Wylan laughed so hard he snorted. 

Jesper absolutely lost it. “You  _ snorted _ ,” he wheezed between laughs as he rolled around.

“Oh nooooo,” Wylan whined, putting his head on his knees. 

“What no, it’s so cute!” Jesper said, recovering somewhat. “Do you ever use that as like, a flute technique?”

“Shut up,” Wylan said into his knees, but Jesper could hear the smile in his voice. 

“Not a chance, Goldilocks.” Jesper took a chance and reached over to ruffle the back of Wylan’s hair. It was meant to be a friendly (if somewhat daring) gesture, but he was immediately distracted by how soft Wylan’s hair felt in his fingers. Then he was spiraling into thoughts about tugging at the curls, getting Wylan to tip his head back a bit so Jesper could have access to his perfect throat...he loved neck kissing. It was kind of his thing. He could move just the smallest distance right now and nose aside the hair at Wylan’s nape and kiss him there…

_ Fuck _ . Jesper snapped back to reality. Luckily his hand was back in his lap, so--ok, good. He hadn’t spent the last however-many seconds with his fingers awkwardly caressing Wylan’s head. Wylan had sat up and was looking studiously at the canopy of leaves above them, his cheeks a little pink.

Jesper wasn’t sure how to proceed from there, but his stomach saved him from having to figure it out by rumbling loudly.

“How am I still hungry?” Jesper asked in amazement.

“Munchies,” Wylan reminded him. “I’m famished too.”

“Great,” Jesper said, jumping up. “Let’s get snacks.” That seemed like the perfect, easy excuse for ending the moment. He could happily have sat there all day with Wylan, but he was pretty sure that if he did, he was going to say or do something that got them both in big trouble. 

Wylan followed Jesper back down the path, the feel of Jesper’s long fingers in his hair still at the top of his mind.  _ He called me cute, _ he thought. The thought was both reassuring and disheartening at the same time.

They returned to find everyone more or less awake. 

“Nice walk?” Nina asked casually, catching Jesper’s eye as her eyebrows asked a completely different question.

“Super nice,” Jesper said. He gave Nina a little head shake before upending a bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos and pouring some into his mouth. “Now we have munchies.”

Kaz stretched and sat up, shifting Inej’s legs off his lap. “We need to move to our next location. It’s already four.”

Food and blankets were gathered up, though much less efficiently than the first time, and everyone filed back to the house. There followed a quick verbal scuffle about who would be riding with whom--they somehow settled on Wylan with Nina and Matthias, Kaz with Inej, and Jesper alone--and without further ado they were on their way. 

Wylan knew better than to ask where they were going, but he did know that Kuwei was meeting them there. He was excited and nervous--he  _ really _ wanted everyone to like each other. Well, if he distilled that statement down to its truest essence, he really wanted  _ Kuwei and Jesper _ to like each other. He wasn’t too worried about anyone else. 

They made their way back towards the city, eventually detouring off the route that would have taken them to Wylan’s apartment until they ended up at Nina’s house. Wylan assumed they were there for cake, but everyone convened in the driveway and made no move to go inside. 

“This isn’t an actual location,” Inej explained. “We’re just parking so we can get a Lyft to the next spot.” 

A few minutes later, an SUV pulled up. Wylan wondered to himself why they couldn’t just drive themselves to the next spot, but nonetheless obediently climbed into the back after everyone else. 

After introducing himself as Peter and exchanging greetings, the driver cheerfully handed the phone cord over to Nina, who immediately blasted dance music. It was fortunate for Peter that their next location was less than a 10-minute drive away, Jesper thought, because they were  _ loud. _

They made their way from suburbia back towards downtown until they ended up in the Arts District. The buildings here were warehouses mixed with older apartment buildings and factory buildings converted into lofts or galleries, with some obnoxiously new luxury apartments sprinkled in. Wylan was pretty sure his father owned at least one of those; Jan van Eck had no qualms about helping to gentrify neighborhoods with overpriced housing developments. That was kind of his whole brand.

The building they arrived at, however, was not new; it was an unassuming three-story brick building, painted a tidy black, with a small adjacent parking lot packed with cars. There still weren’t many clues about what this place was, but Wylan could hear noise from inside--shouts and a sort of intermittent zippy rumble that sounded familiar but that he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

The only other indication of what the place might be was the blood-red neon sign over the door-- the silhouette of a crow perched on the edge of a goblet.  _ Oh.  _ With a start, Wylan realized this must be the infamous--

“Welcome to the Crow Club!” Nina threw her arm around him and gave him a squeeze. “Ready to finish out the day in the most upscale, stylish, and classy establishment you’ll ever see?”

“That sounds suspiciously like sarcasm,” Kaz said thoughtfully.

“Not at all,” Nina said breezily. “You know there’s nowhere else we’d rather be.”

Kaz nodded and swung the door open for them. “Good. Because you know we don’t open early for just anyone and it would be a real shame if that went unappreciated.”

“Please!” Nina snorted. “We open early for people all the time. Not that you aren’t actually special, Goldilocks” she added, ruffling Wylan’s hair as they walked in.

“Aha! It’s caught on!” Jesper said, bouncing around and poking Nina and Wylan in the arms. “My work here is done.”

“Yeah, thanks a lot,” Wylan grumbled, but his heart was full again and he grinned in spite of himself.

The entrance to the club held a small ticket booth, an ATM, and an empty stool which would presumably hold a bouncer once the club was officially open. Kaz led them through the interior door and stepped aside so they could all pass.

Jesper never tired of bringing new people to the club. He got endless joy from seeing it through new eyes, and watching the amazement bloom on peoples’ faces when they saw the full scope of the interior.

Wylan was no different. He wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting, but it definitely wasn’t a skate park that took up the entire footprint of the ground floor. He blinked. The Crow Club was  _ a skate park?  _

He looked around and found everyone in the group watching him, smiling.

“Not what you expected?” Kaz rasped. Wylan didn’t quite know how to respond.

“Well we’re not done yet,” Inej said. She caught the eye of someone on roller skates at the edge of one of the bowls and waved. The skater waved back and dropped down perfectly into the bowl, whizzing up the other side and finishing with a tidy flip. Inej clapped her hands and grinned at Wylan. “I taught her that trick.”

Kaz broke off to go speak to someone on the other side, a muscular androgynous person wearing a skintight red lifeguard tank top and matching shorts. The two of them exchanged words and Kaz looked pleased.

“That’s the ref,” Jesper explained. “We don’t really have fights or anything, but if anyone’s drunk or high in the bowls it’s a problem and we don’t want to get shut down.” 

“Alright, let’s go upstairs,” Kaz said as he limped back. His leg appeared to be bothering him more than usual today, Jesper noted, but he knew Kaz would die before admitting he needed a break. Jesper hated it. He was grateful when everyone unanimously veered towards the elevator instead of the stairs.

Squeezed into the elevator, Wylan was thoroughly confused as to what more to the club there could possibly be. Was this going to be Kaz’s  _ apartment? _ Surely if they were going to have a gathering at someone’s house it would have been Nina’s. Then the doors slid open and everyone stepped out and Wylan’s jaw dropped. Definitely not an apartment. 

Wylan admittedly didn’t have much prior experience with clubs, but he immediately decided that this one was perfect. It was decorated in shades of red, with perfectly sexy dim lighting and a small stage at one side, where a DJ was busy setting up her gear. It smelled comfortingly of artisanal cocktails with a subtle spiciness underneath, and Wylan spotted two pinball machines on the wall opposite the stage.

“Welcome to the Crow Club, part two,” Jesper said with a sweep of his hand.

“Wow,” Wylan breathed.  _ How does Kaz  _ own _ this? _ He wondered. His head was bursting with questions, but at that moment, the stairwell door next to them opened and out popped Kuwei. Nina and Wylan cheered and Kuwei only looked surprised for a moment before stepping over and giving Wylan a tight hug.  _ Here we go _ , Wylan thought.

Everyone introduced themselves and then made their way to one of the round corner booths. Jesper watched Kuwei and Wylan together, feeling a little like he was looking for clues, although logically he knew that made no sense whatsoever. Even though Wylan talked about Kuwei a lot, Jesper never got the sense that they were interested in each other  _ like that _ ...but still. If there was something there, he wanted to know about it before he dug himself even deeper into this stupid crush. He thought back to the first couple years when his interest in Kaz had been the most obvious; it had never stopped him from hooking up with anyone else, but a couple people had brought it up as a reason why they lost interest, and it still stung. He didn’t want to be on the other side of that.

The booth comfortably fit five, so extra chairs were pulled up and everyone sat down in a big messy heap, all talking at once. Wylan was sandwiched between Kuwei and Jesper, with Kaz and Inej in the chairs, looking for all the world like royal parents overseeing a batch of unruly youngsters. 

Wylan was bursting to tell Kuwei everything about the day, but there was no way they were going to get any alone time until later when Kuwei stayed over at Wylan’s place. In the meantime, Kuwei was under strict orders to ‘Watch Jesper’ and see if he could sleuth out any indications of potential feelings. He was good at observing people without them realizing it.

Jesper had done a good job of making it seem like him sitting in this spot was coincidental. The warm proximity of Wylan’s body amidst the chaos of the group felt somehow even more intimate than the time he and Wylan had spent alone at the creek. Add that to the happy blushes and eyes aimed pointedly at everyone  _ except _ Jesper, and Jesper was feeling downright fluttery. 

The bartender sauntered over, holding a tray with a bottle of champagne and seven champagne flutes, and Kaz held his hand up for silence. 

“Ok, here’s how this works for tonight. Under no circumstances does this place of business allow any illegal activities such as underage drinking. However, since we’re not technically doing any business for another--” he checked his watch. “--eighty-two minutes, Nina has taken the liberty of ordering champagne, and everyone can get whatever other drink they like. Within reason.”

Everyone clapped and started hurling drink orders. There was a pause when the bartender got to Wylan and Kuwei’s end of the table.

“What do you recommend?” Kuwei asked her. 

Everyone started talking at once.

“Dark and stormy!” 

“French 75!”

“No, that gin thing that was the special last week!”

“Oh my god!” Kuwei said, rolling his eyes comically. “Sorry I asked.”

“I’ll have a mojito?” Wylan said. 

Nina reached across the table and put her hand on Wylan’s arm. “Babe. Never change.”

Even though he knew she wasn’t being mean, Wylan blushed. 

“Mojitos are great!” Jesper chimed in, feeling defensive. Wylan turned even redder. 

“They taste like toothpaste,” Kuwei said flatly. “I’ve been through this with him multiple times, trust me.” 

Everyone laughed and Wylan glared at Kuwei happily. Laughter was good. Everything was good. Finally Kuwei told the bartender to surprise him, and she nodded and sauntered away again.

Nina pushed the champagne bucket towards Wylan. “Pop it, baby!”

Wylan popped it, secretly delighting in the satisfactory noise, and poured precise amounts into everyone’s glass. 

As soon as everyone had a flute, Kuwei raised his glass. “Happy birthday, jerk.” There was a chorus of assent and everyone clinked glasses. 

Jesper decided to take his second risk of the day. He shifted a bit, nothing big, just an oh-so-nonchalant change in position until his knee brushed against Wylans, and then he held it there. Wylan choked on his champagne and started coughing violently.

Jesper grinned and patted him on the back. “You ok? You’re not allowed to die on your birthday!” He nudged his leg closer and grinned as he watched the color creep up Wylan’s neck.

“Sorry, just some bubbles going down the wrong way,” Wylan said when he could breathe again. Although to be completely honest there was no way his breath was going back to normal as long as Jesper’s long thigh was anywhere near his. He felt like every atom in his body was hyper-focused on that one stretch of skin. It was unbalanced, though; Jesper was doing most of the work. Wylan was suddenly aware that they could be experiencing more of this if he only pushed back just a little.

So he pushed, and he kept his eyes studiously on his champagne glass as Jesper cleared his throat and suddenly became very interested in the stack of napkins Inej had passed over for cleanup. Wylan glanced at Kuwei, who met his eyes and sent him a tiny yet meaningful eyebrow message.

In a divine act of distraction mercy, the bartender brought their next round, along with two heaping plates of french fries. No one was finished with their champagne yet, but despite double fisting their drinks they all somehow managed to throw back the french fries in record time.

With mouths no longer occupied with food, the chatter swelled to a maximum. Kuwei seemed to put almost no effort into making conversation and somehow still managed to connect with every single person about something they had in common. Even Kaz talked to him a bit when he found out Kuwei was a chess champion who was also into sleight-of-hand. 

The plates were mostly clean when Nina excused herself. A few minutes later she reappeared, carrying a short, pale green cake absolutely bristling with lit candles.

“Do you want us to sing?” she asked Wylan. “Doesn’t matter, we’re singing.” 

It was more of a shouted chant than a song, but the enthusiasm was so infectious that Wylan was able to blow out all the candles in one breath, earning a cheer from the group. He was delighted to discover that the cake was, in fact, Princess Cake. 

The next hour passed in a blur as Wylan gave in to the floaty buzz of tipsiness, his sugar high, and the comfort of the six voices talking and laughing around him. Jesper’s leg, still pressed up against his, was the only thing keeping Wylan from drifting off into an oversaturated daze. 

The cake didn’t stand a chance, although some vague noises were made about saving some for Wylan to take home with him. Everyone had seconds and it looked like the second food coma of the day was about to hit when Kaz looked at his watch again and got to his feet.

“Booooooo!” Nina and Jesper yelled before Kaz had a chance to say anything. 

“You know what happens if you get in the way of my profits,” Kaz said, mouth quirking. “Now get out of my club.”

“I’ll stay with you tonight,” Inej said. “I don’t feel like calling a car.” Kaz nodded. 

Everyone dragged themselves out of the booth and said goodbye to the two staying, earning warm hugs from Inej and no touching whatsoever from Kaz. 

“I can’t believe it’s only 6:30,” Jesper groaned as they took the elevator down. “I feel like I ran a marathon.”

“You know it’s bad when even  _ you _ don’t have energy,” Matthias remarked. He sounded tired too, with Nina tucked against his shoulder calling a Lyft.

It was slightly cooler and still not quite sunset when they stepped outside. Everyone blinked in the surprising daylight and stood around until Nina’s phone dinged.

“Lyft is here!” she said, and gave everyone a big hug. “Happy birthday,” she said, keeping her arm around Wylan. “Hope you had fun.” Wylan could only nod and grin.

Jesper gave daps to Matthias and then fistbumped Kuwei. “Great to finally meet you, man,” he said sincerely. He turned to Wylan and Nina graciously removed her arm and gave Wylan a little push. 

“All yours, babe,” she said mischievously.

Jesper didn’t give Wylan time to make it awkward. He wrapped his arms around his shoulders and squeezed, silently breathing in whatever scent was in Wylan’s hair that Jesper had now officially decided was going to drive him crazy.

Wylan held his breath for a moment and then hugged Jesper back, arms circling his narrow waist as he tried to figure out just how much  _ hands on Jesper’s back _ was appropriate. It only lasted a moment before Jesper pulled away. They locked eyes and then Kuwei said “let’s go watch TV and never move” and everyone laughed and Nina said goodbye again as she climbed into the back seat with Matthias. 

Jesper grinned and gave them a cheeky salute over the top of the passenger door. “Later, Goldilocks.”

“Bye,” Wylan said giddily, and he let Kuwei pull him away.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So I went back and forth a bit about the pros and cons of making the Crow Club more of a free-for-all, underage-drinking-friendly establishment (since that's the case in the books) and then decided that didn't really fit in with how I'm developing the Dregs here, so I compromised by assuming Ketterdam is vaguely European and the legal drinking age is 18. And that Kaz would be fine with bending his own rules if it was done safely. 
> 
> Ultimately I want to preserve the spirit of the Dregs (as I've imagined them here) as chaotic good troublemakers who want the best for The Youth while screwing over all the systems that don't.


	12. Wylan and Jesper: Post-Mortem

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wylan and Jesper figure out how to deal with their crushes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know the POVs in this whole fic are wildly inconsistent, but I'm deciding to lean into it (basically I have a ton of stuff/emotions I want to cover and it's just not efficient to keep writing from individual POVs for every chapter). Just wanted to say I am WELL AWARE of this problem and hope no one minds lol.

WYLAN

* * *

“He made you a _playlist_?” Kuwei’s eyebrows were raised so high they were almost in his hairline.

They were flopped out in Wylan’s bedroom, trying to decide if they wanted to move to the roof, or move at all. Sweatpants and staying horizontal felt like maybe all they could manage at the moment.

“Yeah,” Wylan sighed. “And it looks really good.”

“Well he DJs, so I would hope so,” Kuwei said.

Wylan was confused. “He what?”

“He DJs at the Crow Club,” Kuwei repeated. “How did you not know that?”

“No no, more importantly, how _do_ you know that?” Wylan asked incredulously. “Are you messing with me right now?”

Kuwei put his hand over his heart. “Absolutely not. He mentioned it tonight because I brought up this sick drum and bass track I like and he actually knew what it was, so we started talking.”

Wylan buried his face in his arms. “For one thing, please never say the phrase ‘sick drum and bass track’ to me ever again. Also _what the hell_?” He raised his head and looked at Kuwei. “As if he wasn’t already hot enough. I hate him.”

“Yes, well. He definitely does not hate you,” Kuwei said drily.

Wylan flushed. “You think?”

“Dude, it is so fucking obvious,” Kuwei said, shaking his head. “He was watching you, like, the entire night. He’s the opposite of how you are. Whenever you like someone, you do this weird thing where you--”

“Look at everything except the person’s face, yeah yeah, I know,” Wylan said. “And I’ve told you, it’s on purpose. I already have zero control over my stupid blushing, why would I want to add ‘worst poker face ever’ to that pile?”

“Fine.” Kuwei waved his hand. “Keep being weird. The point is, Jesper is super fucking into you. Or did I mean, super into fucking you.” He waggled his eyebrows.

Wylan flipped over so he could glare at him upside down. “Shut up. Don’t say ‘fucking’ or I’m going to die.”

“Oh, stop being so dramatic. Let me see the playlist. We have to analyze the whole thing right now.” Kuwei flexed his fingers in Wylan’s direction.

Wylan grinned and unlocked his phone before handing it over. “I feel like going through the trouble to make it is a good sign, right? And he definitely called me cute.” He put his arms over his face. “Ugh. I’m losing my mind.”

Kuwei grinned. “I’ve literally never seen you like this. It’s hilarious.”

“You suck,” Wylan said through his arms.

“Ok, so what did he say when he gave it to you?” Kuwei asked, his attention back on the playlist.

“He said, umm, I don’t know--something like, ‘These are some of my favorite dance tracks and some good rock-out jams and just some other stuff I think you’d like,’ and then he made a joke about flute music.”

“And called you cute,” Kuwei added.

Wylan flushed. “That was later. So what do you think?”

“Well he has good taste in music for sure,” Kuwei said. He typed something in and started scrolling through lyrics.

“Some of them I know,” Wylan said. “Like that Robyn song. And I feel like that one’s a bad sign.”

“Yeah but all of Robyn’s best songs could be taken as a bad sign,” Kuwei said.

“Not ‘Indestructible’!” Wylan protested.

“Ok sure but...would _you_ put ‘Indestructible’ on a playlist for someone who you were crushing on but didn’t know if he felt the same way and also couldn’t openly date? Cuz I sure wouldn’t.”

Wylan sighed. “Ok that’s fair. Just…‘Hang With Me’ is literally a warning about how she only wants someone to hang out with her if they’re just friends. Seems pretty open and shut to me.”

“I see your Robyn pessimism and I raise you this track titled 'Would You Die To Be Adored' _and_ the lyrics to this MUNA song,” Kuwei said smugly, waving the phone in Wylan’s direction. “Read them: _If you want to go out dancing, I know a place we can go._ That's disgustingly adorable."

Wylan hid a grin. “Ok, that one’s better.”

“Plus I have anecdotal and observational evidence that he’s into you,” Kuwei continued. “Exhibit A: he called you cute, as you’ve now pointed out no less than seven times in the last hour. Exhibit B: you were totally kneeing him under the table at the club and he was all about it.”

“You saw that?” Wylan’s cheeks heated up. 

“I only noticed because I know you,” Kuwei said reassuringly, making Wylan feel only marginally better. He had hoped that he and Jesper hadn’t been obvious enough that anyone not sitting directly next to him would have noticed. He knew they had been taking risks all day but it had kind of felt like there were no rules on his birthday. At least Kaz hadn’t seemed to notice or care. That was comforting. 

“So what do I do?” Wylan asked.

“I think you should tell him,” Kuwei replied immediately. “No--” he held up his hand as Wylan started to protest. “Listen to me. I personally will not survive much more of you flopping your freckly-ass body all over the place, whining about how cute his dimple is. So I need you to put us both out of your misery and confess.”

Wylan threw a pillow at Kuwei’s head and missed by a large margin.

“Hey!” Kuwei yelped. “Don’t be rude, asshole.”

Wylan sat up, looking serious. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I know I’ve been insufferable for the last few weeks. I just...I really miss being at the same school as you, and I also really love being friends with the Dregs. I don’t want to mess it up with them, but I like him _so_ _much_.”

“I know,” Kuwei’s voice was gentler now. “I totally get it. But you have to stop worrying. Either you keep flirting in secret or you straight up ask him how he feels, which I know you totally aren’t going to do, so…” Kuwei shrugged.

Wylan flopped onto his back. “I literally can’t. I’d get Kazzed.”

Kuwei rolled his eyes. “Oh come on. He can’t control all of your personal lives. That’s cult leader behavior.”

“Honestly, not that far off. You’ve met him…would _you_ want to get on his bad side?” Wylan said. “But regardless, I just don’t think I can do it. _Maybe_ if Jesper made the first move I’d consider breaking ‘Dregs law’ or whatever.”

“Oh yeah, I’m sure you would ‘maybe consider it’ if Jesper kissed you first,” Kuwei said, making exaggerated air quotes. “Are you kidding me? If Jesper Fahey tried to make out with you, you’d melt into a puddle and do whatever he said, no questions asked. You have zero self-control around him.”

Kuwei wasn’t exaggerating. Wylan sighed. “I know! And I’m not like, _proud_ of that or whatever. But I'd like to think that if he went for it, I would at least have the sense to ask ‘are you sure about this?’ before jumping his bones.” He giggled, which made Kuwei start giggling too. 

Then suddenly they were both laughing so hard they were crying and they couldn’t stop. Kuwei rolled around next to the bed and laughed so hard he farted, which made them both lose it all over again. They laughed until they were wheezing and Kuwei had to get his inhaler, which sobered them up somewhat.

“Ok but what if you just tell him to clear the air?” Kuwei asked, wiping his eyes. “Just be like, ‘I know we can’t do anything but I just had to get it out there so I can stop being awkward around you.’”

“But what if I’m really reading all the signals wrong and this is just how he is with everyone and then it’s even _more_ awkward because he knows I was stupid enough to fall for him?”

“Then you say, ‘JK LOL psych, bro’ and move on,” Kuwei said sarcastically. “I don’t know, just make a list of pros and cons, or whatever it is you Virgos do.” 

“Hey! Don’t make fun of my lists, you know they help!” Wylan said. “Remember when we helped you decide to dye your hair orange?”

“Yeah, and I fucking hated it,” Kuwei said.

“Yes, but the list _objectively_ helped you decide to do it at all,” Wylan said. “And ‘regrets my choice because I have no concept of my personal aesthetic’ wasn’t on either list, so that was your own fault.”

Kuwei laughed. “Ok fair enough.” He paused. “So what’s the consensus? Tell or not tell? Seriously, if you need to make a list I won’t make fun of you. Ride your own ride or whatever.”

“I don’t need to make a list,” Wylan said, leaning his head back against his wall with a bump. “I just...let me think about it for a minute.” 

Kuwei waited, still scrolling through lyrics. It was moments like these when Wylan was extra grateful to have Kuwei as a friend. They bickered plenty, but when it came down to it, Kuwei knew when to be quiet and just be the supportive presence that Wylan needed. 

He didn’t really have to think too long or hard about it. Truthfully, Wylan was exhausted. He was barely six months into carving out a wildly premature adult life for himself, he was the freshest of meat at a new school, and although the Dregs had welcomed him with open arms, it all still felt so tenuous. The last thing he wanted to do was to risk upending one of his last existing sources of comfort and stability.

“I’m not going to tell him,” Wylan said finally. “I just feel like, the less I fuck with this dynamic, the better it’s going to be. For _me_ ,” he added, when Kuwei started to interrupt. “I just feel like if I say something, then suddenly we have this big choice to make, you know? Do we pretend nothing’s happening? Do we start secretly hooking up? And if we do, then we’ll have to actually _say in words_ that we’re going to sneak around, and it’s going to be this whole big thing, and the thought of having a secret boyfriend for the rest of the year kind of makes me want to die.” Wylan ran out of breath and looked at Kuwei in defeat.

Kuwei shrugged. “I don’t disagree. I mean, if this was me I’d totally choose the sneaking around.” He grinned roguishly and his eyebrow lifted. “Because that’s right up my alley. But what you’re saying makes sense for you.”

“Thanks,” Wylan said.

“Tell me you’re not going to ignore his flirting, though!” Kuwei pleaded. “He’s soooo fun to flirt with!”

Wylan looked affronted. “Excuse me?”

“Oh come on,” Kuwei said breezily. “I’m not a saint. And you said it yourself, he flirts with everyone.”

“I hate you,” Wylan glared. 

Kuwei looked wicked. “He started it.”

“ _Uuuugh_.” Wylan tipped over and put his face in his arms again.

“Seriously, though, don’t ignore it,” Kuwei said. “You need some good old-fashioned chem class boners this year, otherwise junior year will be a waste.”

“I swear to god, why do I even keep you around?” Wylan asked from his elbows. 

“Because I’m about to make wasabi popcorn and then we’re going to watch _Mean Girls_?” Kuwei suggested.

Wylan sat up grinning. “That’s exactly it. Do you want hot chocolate?”

JESPER

* * *

Jesper hung out at Nina’s playing Overcooked until he had sobered up enough to drive. As usual, he and Nina were both thoroughly outshined by Matthias, whose efficiency at the game was unparalleled. At least they were all playing on the same team this time--Matthias and Inej were so unbeatable that even Kaz had given up trying to play against them. 

Jesper was partly grateful for the distraction, but he would have appreciated some time alone with Nina to talk about Wylan. Maybe. Honestly he didn’t know if he wanted to drag anyone else into it. The way he figured it was, if he was going to go against Dregs protocol (or whatever dumb shit Kaz would have called it--not that Jesper would ever have said such a thing to Kaz’s face), then the fewer people he told about it the better. At the same time, he hated keeping anything from his friends; the heavy stickiness of lies by omission made him crazy.

He drove home on autopilot, unusually deep in thought. He’d been toying with the decision to throw caution to the wind and go all in on the covert flirting ever since the experimental under-the-table-knee-touching. Feeling Wylan nudge him back had been more electrifying than it had any right to be. Jesper wasn't prone to deep explanations or but if he had to explain, he would have said that before today, it felt like he’d been able to stay fairly safely emotionally distanced from Wylan. Teasing him in class was harmless and fun, and outside of class they were always in a group, with plenty of witnesses who could have looked at the scenarios and testified that this was just another of Jesper’s short-lived crushes.

It was the puppy that had ruined everything. Something had happened when Jesper handed Wylan that chubby little fluff ball--Wylan had lit up from the inside when he saw it, and that flame had burned, bright and unwavering, for the whole day. It was like Wylan’s wonder and joy literally shone out of him and Jesper had felt its pull in a completely new and unexpected way. _Like a freaking moth,_ Nina would have said. 

Maybe so. Jesper wasn’t poetic, but the point was, he wanted to make Wylan feel that way all the time. 

So fuck it, he decided. He would flirt, and do nice things, and make sure Wylan felt as happy and included every day as he had on his birthday. Jesper wanted to stretch out and bask in every blush and blue-eyed smile. There was no question in his mind that the risk was worth the reward. He would be careful, but he was all in. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OBviously I had to make the playlist, so here it is if anyone wants to listen.
> 
> https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5rbT91rmy1pWhqeLQhwgsD


End file.
